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LEE'S 
CENTENNIAL 

AN  •  ADDRESS    BY 
CHARLES    FRANCIS  •  ADAMS 

DELIVERED    AT    LEXINGTON    VIRGINIA 
SATURDAY    JANUARY    19    1907 

ON    THE    INVITATION  •  OF 

THE    PRESIDENT    AND    FACULTY    OF 

WASHINGTON    AND     LEE 

UNIVERSITY 


BOSTON   AND   NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY 

Ritoerffte  prerfg,  Cambridge 
1907 


WITH    COMPLIMENTS    OK 

CHARLES  F. 

23   COURT   ST.,  BOSTON 


DELIVERED  •  AT  •  LEXINGTON  •  VIRGINIA 
SATURDAY  •  JANUARY  - 19  •  1907 

ON  •  THE  -  INVITATION  •  OF 

THE  •  PRESIDENT  -  AND  -  FACULTY  •  OF 

WASHINGTON  •  AND  •  LEE 

UNIVERSITY 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

ffiitoerjnbe  press,  Cambridge 
1907 


LEE'S 
CENTENNIAL 

AN  •  ADDRESS  •  BY 
CHARLES  •  FRANCIS  -ADAMS 

DELIVERED  -  AT  •  LEXINGTON  •  VIRGINIA 
SATURDAY  -  JANUARY  •  19  - 1907 

ON  •  THE  -  INVITATION  •  OF 

THE  •  PRESIDENT  -  AND  •  FACULTY  -  OF 

WASHINGTON  •  AND  -  LEE 

UNIVERSITY 


%Sv 

OF  THE      "      A 

UNIVERSITY   )) 

OF 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

press,  £ambribfle 
1907 


LEE'S  CEKTEOTQAL 


HAVING  occasion  once  to  refer  in  discussion  to 
certain  of  the  founders  of  our  Massachusetts 
Commonwealth,  I  made  the  assertion  that 
their  force  "lay  in  character;"  and  I  added 
that  in  saying  this  I  paid,  and  meant  to  pay, 
the  highest  tribute  which  in  my  judgment 
could  be  paid  to  a  community  or  to  its  typical 
men.  Quite  a  number  of  years  have  passed 
since  I  so  expressed  myself,  and  in  those  years 
I  have  grown  older  —  materially  older;  but  I 
now  repeat  even  more  confidently  than  I 
then  uttered  them,  these  other  words  —  "The 
older  I  have  grown  and  the  more  I  have 
studied  and  seen,  the  greater  in  my  esteem, 
as  an  element  of  strength  in  a  people,  has 
Character  become,  and  the  less  in  the  con 
duct  of  human  affairs  have  I  thought  of  mere 
capacity  or  even  genius.  With  Character  a 
race  will  become  great,  even  though  as  stupid 
and  unassimilating  as  the  Romans;  without 
Character,  any  race  will  in  the  long  run  prove 
a  failure,  though  it  may  number  in  it  individ 
uals  having  all  the  brilliancy  of  the  Jews, 
crowned  with  the  genius  of  Napoleon."  We 


^  C 


2  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

are  here  to-day  to  commemorate  the  birth 
of  Robert  Edward  Lee,  —  essentially  a  Man  of 
Character.  That  he  was  such  all  I  think  recog 
nize;  for,  having  so  impressed  himself  through 
out  life  on  his  cotemporaries,  he  stands  forth 
distinctly  as  a  man  of  character  on  the  page  of 
the  historian.  Yet  it  is  not  easy  to  put  in  words 
exactly  what  is  meant  when  we  agree  in  attrib 
uting  character  to  this  man  or  to  that,  or  with 
holding  it  from  another;  —  conceding  it,  for 
instance,  to  Epaminondas,  Cato  and  Well 
ington,  but  withholding  it  from  Themis- 
tocles,  Caesar  or  Napoleon.  Though  we  can 
illustrate  what  we  mean  by  examples  which 
all  will  accept,  we  cannot  define.  Emerson 
in  his  later  years  (1866)  wrote  a  paper  on 
"Character;"  but  in  it  he  makes  no  effort 
at  a  definition.  " Character,"  he  said,  "de 
notes  habitual  self-possession,  habitual  regard 
to  interior  and  constitutional  motives,  a  bal 
ance  not  to  be  overset  or  easily  disturbed  by 
outward  events  and  opinion,  and  by  implica 
tion  points  to  the  source  of  right  motive.  We 
sometimes  employ  the  word  to  express  the 
strong  and  consistent  will  of  men  of  mixed 
motive;  but,  when  used  with  emphasis,  it 
points  to  what  no  events  can  change,  that  is  a 
will  built  of  the  reason  of  things."  The  more 
matter-of-fact  lexicographer  defines  Charac 
ter  as  "the  sum  of  the  inherited  and  acquired 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  3 

ethical  traits  which  give  to  a  person  his  moral 
individuality."  To  pursue  further  the  defini 
tion  of  what  is  generally  understood  would 
be  wearisome,  so  I  will  content  myself  with 
quoting  this  simile  from  a  disciple  of  Emerson 
—  "The  virtues  of  a  superior  man  are  like  the 
wind;  the  virtues  of  a  common  man  are  like 
the  grass ;  the  grass,  when  the  wind  passes 
over  it,  bends." 

That  America  has  been  rich  in  these  men 
of  superior  virtues  before  whom  the  virtues 
of  the  common  man  have  bent,  is  matter  of 
history.  It  has  also  been  our  making  as  a 
community.  Such  in  New  England  was  John 
Winthrop,  whose  lofty  example  still  influences 
the  community  whose  infancy  he  fathered. 
Such  in  New  York  was  John  Jay.  Such, 
further  south,  was  John  Caldwell  Calhoun, 
essentially  a  man  of  exalted  character  and 
representative  of  his  community,  quite  irre 
spective  of  his  teachings  and  their  outcome. 
Such  unquestionably  in  Virginia  were  George 
Washington  and  John  Marshall;  and,  more 
recently,  Robert  Edward  Lee.  A  stock,  of 
which  those  three  were  the  consummate 
flower,  by  its  fruits  is  known. 

Here  to  commemorate  the  centennial  of  the 
birth  of  Lee,  I  do  not  propose  to  enter  into 
any  eulogium  of  the  man,  to  recount  the  well- 
known  events  of  his  career,  or  to  estimate  the 


4  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

final  place  to  be  assigned  him  among  great 
military  characters.  All  this  has  been  suffi 
ciently  done  by  others  far  better  qualified  for 
the  task.  Eschewing  superlatives  also,  I  shall 
institute  no  comparisons.  One  of  a  commu 
nity  which  then  looked  upon  Lee  as  a  renegade 
from  the  flag  he  had  sworn  to  serve,  and  a 
traitor  to  the  Nation  which  had  nurtured  him, 
in  my  subordinate  place  I  directly  confronted 
Lee  throughout  the  larger  portion  of  the  War 
of  Secession.  During  all  those  years  there  was 
not  a  day  in  which  my  heart  would  not  have 
been  gladdened  had  I  heard  that  his  also  had 
been  the  fate  which  at  Chancellorsville  befell 
his  great  lieutenant;  and  yet  more  glad  had 
it  been  the  fortune  of  the  command  in  which 
I  served  to  visit  that  fate  upon  him.  Forty 
more  years  have  since  gone.  Their  close  finds 
me  here  to-day  —  certainly  a  much  older, 
and,  in  my  own  belief  at  least,  a  wiser  man. 
Nay,  more !  A  distinguished  representative  of 
Massachusetts,  speaking  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  shortly  after  Lee's  death  upon 
the  question  of  a  return  to  Lee's  family  of 
the  ancestral  estate  of  Arlington,  used  these 
words:  "Eloquent  Senators  have  already 
characterized  the  proposition  and  the  traitor 
it  seeks  to  commemorate.  I  am  not  disposed 
to  speak  of  General  Lee.  It  is  enough  to  say 
he  stands  high  in  the  catalogue  of  those  who 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  5 

have  imbrued  their  hands  in  their  country's 
blood.  I  hand  him  over  to  the  avenging  pen  of 
History."  It  so  chances  that  not  only  am  I 
also  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  but,  for 
more  than  a  dozen  years,  I  have  been  the 
chosen  head  of  its  typical  historical  society, 
-  the  society  chartered  under  the  name  and 
seal  of  the  Commonwealth  considerably  more 
than  a  century  ago,  —  the  parent  of  all  simi 
lar  societies.  By  no  means  would  I  on  that 
account  seem  to  ascribe  to  myself  any  repre 
sentative  character  as  respects  the  employ 
ment  of  History's  pen,  whether  avenging  or 
otherwise;1  nor  do  I  appear  here  as  repre 
sentative  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  So 
ciety:  but,  a  whole  generation  having  passed 
away  since  Charles  Sumner  uttered  the  words 
I  have  quoted,  I  do,  on  your  invitation,  chance 
to  stand  here  to-day,  as  I  have  said,  both  a 
Massachusetts  man  and  the  head  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  to  pass 
judgment  upon  General  Lee.  The  situation 
is  thus  to  a  degree  dramatic. 

Though,  in  what  I  am  about  to  say  I  shall 

1  Possibly,  and  more  properly,  this  attribute  might  be  con 
sidered  as  pertaining  rather  to  James  Ford  Rhodes,  also  a 
member  of  the  Society  referred  to,  and  at  present  a  Vice-Presi 
dent  of  it.  Mr.  Rhodes'  characterization  of  General  Lee,  and 
consequent  verdict  on  the  course  pursued  by  him  at  the  time 
under  discussion,  can  be  found  on  reference  to  his  History  of  the 
United  States  (vol.  iii,  p.  413). 


6  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

confine  myself  to  a  few  points  only,  to  them  I 
have  given  no  little  study,  and  on  them  have 
much  reflected.  Let  me,  however,  once  for  all, 
and  with  emphasis,  in  advance  say  I  am  not 
here  to  instruct  Virginians  either  in  the  his 
tory  of  their  State  or  the  principles  of  Consti 
tutional  Law ;  nor  do  I  make  any  pretence  to 
profundity  whether  of  thought  or  insight.  On 
the  contrary  I  shall  attempt  nothing  more 
than  the  elaboration  of  what  has  already  been 
said  by  others  as  well  as  by  me,  such  value  or 
novelty  as  may  belong  to  my  share  in  the  occa 
sion  being  attributable  solely  to  the  point  of 
view  of  the  speaker.  In  that  respect,  I  sub 
mit,  the  situation  is  not  without  novelty;  for, 
so  far  as  I  am  aware,  never  until  now  has  one 
born  and  nurtured  in  Massachusetts  —  a  typi 
cal  bred-in-the-bone  Yankee,  if  you  please  — 
addressed  at  its  invitation  a  Virginian  audi 
ence,  on  topics  relating  to  the  War  of  Seces 
sion  and  its  foremost  Confederate  military 
character. 

Coming  directly  to  my  subject,  my  own 
observation  tells  me  that  the  charge  still  most 
commonly  made  against  Lee  in  that  section  of 
the  common  country  to  which  I  belong  and 
with  which  I  sympathize  is  that,  in  plain  lan 
guage,  he  was  false  to  his  flag,  —  educated  at 
the  national  academy,  an  officer  of  the  United 
States  Army,  he  abjured  his  allegiance  and 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  7 

bore  arms  against  the  government  he  had 
sworn  to  uphold.  In  other  words  he  was  a 
military  traitor.  I  state  the  charge  in  the 
tersest  language  possible;  and  the  facts  are  as 
stated.  Having  done  so,  and  admitting  the 
facts,  I  add  as  the  result  of  much  patient  study 
and  most  mature  reflection,  that  under  similar 
conditions  I  would  myself  have  done  exactly 
what  Lee  did.  In  fact,  I  do  not  see  how  I, 
placed  as  he  was  placed,  could  have  done 
otherwise. 

And  now  fairly  entered  on  the  first  phase 
of  my  theme,  I  must  hurry  on;  for  I  have 
much  ground  to  traverse,  and  scant  time  in 
which  to  cover  it.  I  must  be  concise,  but 
must  not  fail  to  be  explicit.  And  first  as  to 
the  right  or  wrong  of  secession,  this  theoreti 
cally;  then  practically,  as  to  what  secession 
in  the  year  of  grace  1861  necessarily  involved. 

If  ever  a  subject  had  been  thoroughly 
thrashed  out,  —  so  thrashed  out  in  fact  as  to 
offer  no  possible  gleaning  of  novelty,  —  it 
might  be  inferred  that  this  was  that  subject. 
Yet  I  venture  the  opinion  that  such  is  not  al 
together  the  case.  I  do  so  moreover  not  with 
out  weighing  words.  The  difficulty  with  the 
discussion  has  to  my  mind  been  that  through 
out  it  has  in  essence  been  too  abstract,  legal 
and  technical,  and  not  sufficiently  historical, 
sociological  and  human.  It  has  turned  on 


8  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

the  wording  of  instruments,  in  themselves 
not  explicit,  and  has  paid  far  too  little  regard 
to  traditions  and  local  ties.  As  matter  of 
fact,  however,  actual  men  as  they  live,  move 
and  have  their  being  in  this  world,  caring 
little  for  parchments  or  theory,  are  the  crea 
tures  of  heredity  and  local  attachments. 
Coming  directly  to  the  point,  I  maintain  that 
every  man  in  the  eleven  States  seceding 
from  the  Union  had  in  1861,  whether  he  would 
or  no,  to  decide  for  himself  whether  to  ad 
here  to  his  State  or  to  the  Nation;  and  I 
finally  assert  that,  whichever  way  he  decided, 
if  only  he  decided  honestly,  putting  self-inter 
est  behind  him,  he  decided  right. 

Paradoxical  as  it  sounds,  I  contend,  more 
over,  that  this  was  indisputably  so.  It  was 
a  question  of  Sovereignty  —  State  or  Na 
tional;  and  from  a  decision  of  that  question 
there  was  in  a  seceded  State  escape  for  no 
man.  Yet  when  the  national  Constitution 
was  framed  and  adopted  that  question  was 
confessedly  left  undecided;  and  intention 
ally  so  left.  More  than  this,  even :  the  Federal 
Constitution  was  theoretically  and  avowedly 
based  on  the  idea  of  a  divided  sovereignty, 
in  utter  disregard  of  the  fact  that,  when  a 
final  issue  is  presented,  sovereignty  does  not 
admit  of  division. 

Yet  even  this  last  proposition,  basic  as  it  is, 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  9 

I  have  heard  denied.  I  have  frequently  had 
it  replied  that,  as  matter  of  fact,  sovereignty 
is  frequently  divided,  —  divided  in  domestic 
life,  —  divided  in  the  apportionment  of  the 
functions  of  government.  Those  thus  ar 
guing,  however,  do  so  confusedly.  They 
confound  sovereignty  with  an  agreed,  but 
artificial,  modus  vivendi.  The  original  con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  was,  in  fact,  in 
this  important  respect  just  that,  —  a  modus 
vivendi:  —  under  the  circumstances  a  most 
happy  and  ingenious  expedient  for  over 
coming  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  nationality, 
otherwise  insurmountable.  To  accomplish 
the  end  they  had  in  view,  the  framers  had 
recourse  to  a  metaphysical  abstraction,  under 
which  it  was  left  to  time  and  the  individual 
to  decide,  when  the  final  issue  should  arise, 
if  it  ever  did  arise  —  as  they  all  devoutly 
hoped  it  never  would  arise  —  where  sover 
eignty  lay.  There  is  nothing  in  connection 
with  the  history  of  our  development  more 
interesting  from  the  historical  point  of  view 
than  the  growth,  the  gradual  development  of 
the  spirit  of  nationality,  carrying  with  it 
sovereignty.  It  has  usually  been  treated  as 
a  purely  legal  question  to  be  settled  on  the 
verbal  construction  of  the  instruments,  - 
"We,  the  People,"  etc.  Webster  so  treated 
it.  In  all  confidence  I  maintain  that  it  is 


10  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

not  a  legal  question;  it  is  purely  an  historical 
question.  As  such,  furthermore,  it  has  been 
decided,  and  correctly  decided,  both  ways 
at  different  times  in  different  sections,  and 
at  different  times  in  opposite  ways  in  the 
same  section. 

And  this  was  necessarily  and  naturally  so; 
for,  as  development  progressed  along  various 
lines  and  in  different  localities,  the  sense  of 
allegiance  shifted.  Two  whole  generations 
passed  away  between  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution  and  the  War  of  Seces 
sion.  When  that  war  broke  out  in  1861  the 
last  of  the  framers  had  been  a  score  of  years 
in  his  grave;  but  evidence  is  conclusive  that 
until  the  decennium  between  1830  and  1840 
the  belief  was  nearly  universal  that  in  case 
of  a  final,  unavoidable  issue,  sovereignty 
resided  in  the  State,  and  to  it  allegiance  was 
due.  The  law  was  so  laid  down  in  the  Ken 
tucky  resolves  of  1798;  and  to  the  law  as 
thus  laid  down  Webster  assented.  Chancellor 
Rawle  so  propounded  the  law;  and  such  was 
the  understanding  of  so  unprejudiced  and 
acute  a  foreign  observer  as  De  Tocqueville.1 

The  technical  argument  —  the  logic  of 
the  proposition  —  seems  plain  and,  to  my 
thought,  unanswerable.  The  original  sov 
ereignty  was  indisputably  in  the  State;  in 

i  See  Appendix. 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  11 

order  to  establish  a  nationality  certain  at 
tributes  of  sovereignty  were  ceded  by  the 
States  to  a  common  central  organization; 
all  attributes  not  thus  specifically  conceded 
were  reserved  to  the  States,  and  no  attri 
butes  of  moment  were  to  be  construed  as 
conceded  by  implication.  There  is  no  attri 
bute  of  sovereignty  so  important  as  allegiance, 
—  citizenship.  So  far  all  is  elementary.  Now 
we  come  to  the  crux  of  the  proposition.  Not 
only  was  allegiance  —  the  right  to  define 
and  establish  citizenship  —  not  among  the 
attributes  specifically  conceded  by  the  sev 
eral  States  to  the  central  nationality,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  it  was  explicitly  reserved, 
the  instrument  declaring  that  "the  citizens 
of  each  State"  should  be  entitled  to  "all 
Privileges  and  Immunities  of  Citizens  in 
the  several  States."  Ultimate  allegiance  was, 
therefore,  due  to  the  State  which  defined 
and  created  citizenship,  and  not  to  the  cen 
tral  organization  which  accepted  as  citizens 
whomever  the  States  pronounced  to  be  such.1 
Thus  far  I  have  never  been  able  to  see 
where  room  was  left  for  doubt.  Citizenship 

1  See  W.  H.  Fleming,  Slavery  and  the  Race  Problem  at  the 
South,  pp.  19,  20.  An  authoritative  definition  of  United  States 
citizenship,  as  distinct  from  the  citizenship  of  a  State,  was  first 
given  in  the  fourteenth  amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution, 
ratified  in  1868.  See  J.  S.  Wise,  A  Treatise  on  American  Citi 
zenship,  pp.  6,  13,  31. 


12  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

was  an  attribute  recognized  by  the  Constitu 
tion  as  originating  with,  and  of  course  be 
longing  to,  the  several  States.  But,  speaking 
historically  and  in  a  philosophical  rather  than 
in  a  legal  spirit,  it  is  little  more  than  a  com 
monplace  to  assert  that  one  great  safeguard 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  —  what  might  al 
most  be  termed  its  political  palladium  — 
has  ever  been  that  hard,  if  at  times  illogical, 
common  sense  which,  recognizing  established 
custom  as  a  binding  rule  of  action,  found  its 
embodiment  in  what  we  are  wont  with  pride 
to  term  the  Common  Law.  Now,  just  as  there 
can,  I  think,  be  no  question  as  to  the  source 
of  citizenship  and,  consequently,  as  to  sover 
eignty,  when  the  Constitution  was  originally 
adopted,  there  can  be  equally  little  question 
that  during  the  lives  of  the  two  succeeding 
generations  a  custom  of  nationality  grew  up 
which  became  the  accepted  Common  Law 
of  the  land,  and  practically  binding  as  such. 
This  was  true  in  the  South  as  well  as  the  North, 
though  the  custom  was  more  hardened  into 
accepted  law  in  the  latter  than  in  the  former; 
but  the  growth  and  acceptance  as  law  of  the 
custom  of  nationality  even  in  the  South  was 
incontrovertibly  shown  in  the  very  act  of 
secession, — the  seceding  States  at  once  crys 
tallizing  into  a  Confederacy.  Nationality  was 
assumed  as  a  thing  of  course. 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  13 

But  the  metaphysical  abstraction  of  a  di 
vided  sovereignty,  none  the  less,  bridged  the 
chasm.  As  a  modus  vivendi  it  did  its  work. 
I  have  called  it  a  metaphysical  abstraction; 
but  it  was  also  a  practical  arrangement  re 
sulting  in  great  advantages.  It  might  be 
illogical,  and  fraught  with  possible  disputes 
and  consequent  dangers;  but  it  was  an  insti 
tution.  And  so  it  naturally  came  to  pass  that 
in  many  of  the  States  a  generation  grew 
up,  dating  from  the  War  of  1812,  who,  gravi 
tating  steadily  and  more  and  more  strongly 
to  nationality,  took  a  wholly  different  view 
of  allegiance.  For  them  Story  laid  down  the 
law;  Webster  was  their  mouthpiece;  at  one 
time  it  looked  as  if  Jackson  was  to  be  their 
armed  exponent.  They  were,  moreover, 
wholly  within  their  right.  The  sovereignty 
was  confessedly  divided;  and  it  was  for  them 
to  elect.  The  movements  of  both  science 
and  civilization  were  behind  the  nationalists. 
The  railroad  obliterated  State  lines,  while  it 
unified  the  nation.  What  did  the  foreign  im 
migrants,  now  swarming  across  the  ocean, 
care  for  States  ?  They  knew  only  the  Nation. 
Brought  up  in  Europe,  the  talk  of  State  sov 
ereignty  was  to  them  foolishness.  Its  alpha 
bet  was  incomprehensible.  In  a  word,  it  too 
"was  caviare  to  the  general." 

Then  the   inevitable   issue   arose;  and  it 


14  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

arose  over  African  slavery;  and  slavery  was 
sectional.  The  States  south  of  a  given  line 
were  arrayed  against  the  States  north  of  that 
line.  Owing  largely  to  slavery,  and  the  prac 
tical  exclusion  of  immigrants  because  thereof, 
the  States  of  the  South  had  never  undergone 
nationalization  at  all  to  the  extent  those  of 
the  North  had  undergone  it.  The  growing 
influence  and  power  of  the  national  govern 
ment,  the  sentiment  inspired  by  the  wars  in 
which  we  had  been  engaged,  the  rapidly  im 
proving  means  of  communication  and  inter 
course,  had  produced  their  effects  in  the 
South;  but  in  degree  far  less  than  in  the  North. 
Thus  the  curious  result  was  brought  about 
that,  when,  at  last,  the  long  deferred  issue 
confronted  the  country,  and  the  modus  vi- 
vendi  of  two  generations  was  brought  to  a 
close,  those  who  believed  in  national  sov 
ereignty  constituted  the  conservative  ma 
jority,  striving  for  the  preservation  of  what 
then  was,  —  the  existing  nineteenth-century 
Nation,  —  while  those  who  passionately  ad 
hered  to  State  sovereignty,  treading  in  the  foot 
steps  of  the  fathers,  had  become  eighteenth- 
century  reactionists.  Legally,  each  had  right 
on  his  side.  The  theory  of  a  divided  Sover 
eignty  had  worked  itself  out  to  its  logical  con 
sequence.  "Under  which  King,  Bezonian ? " 
—  and  every  man  had  to  "speak  or  die." 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  15 

In  the  North  the  situation  was  simple. 
State  and  Nation  stood  together.  The  ques 
tion  of  allegiance  did  not  present  itself,  for 
the  two  sovereignties  merged.  It  was  other 
wise  in  the  South;  and  there  the  question 
became,  not  legal  or  constitutional,  but  prac 
tical.  The  life  of  the  Nation  had  endured 
so  long,  the  ties  and  ligaments  had  become 
so  numerous  and  interwoven  that,  all  the 
ories  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  a  peace 
able  secession  from  the  Union  —  a  virtual 
exercise  of  State  sovereignty  —  had  become 
impossible.  If  those  composing  the  several 
dissatisfied  communities  would  only  keep 
their  tempers  under  restraint,  and  exercise 
an  almost  unlimited  patience,  a  theoretical 
divided  sovereignty,  maintained  through  the 
agency  and  intervention  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  —  in  other  words  the  perpetuation 
of  the  modus  vivendi,  —  was  altogether  prac 
ticable;  and  probably  this  was  what  the 
framers  had  in  mind  under  such  a  contin 
gency  as  had  now  arisen.  But  that,  after 
seventy  years  of  Union  and  nationalization, 
a  peaceable  and  friendly  taking  to  pieces 
was  possible,  is  now,  as  then  it  was,  scarcely 
thinkable.  Certainly,  with  a  most  vivid  re 
collection  of  the  state  of  sectional  feeling 
which  then  existed,  I  do  not  believe  there  was 
a  man  in  the  United  States  —  I  am  confi- 


16  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

dent  there  was  not  a  woman  in  the  South 
-  who  fostered  self-delusion  to  the  extent 
of  believing  that  the  change  was  to  come 
about  without  a  recourse  to  force.  In  other 
words  practical  Secession  was  revolution  the 
oretically  legal.  Why  waste  time  and  breath 
in  discussion! — The  situation  becomes  mani 
festly  impossible  of  continuance  where  the 
issue  between  heated  men,  with  weapons 
handy,  is  over  a  metaphysical  distinction  in 
volving  vast  material  and  moral  consequences. 
Lee,  with  intuitive  common  sense,  struck  the 
nail  squarely  on  the  head  when  amidst  the 
Babel  of  discordant  tongues  he  wrote  to  his 
son  —  "It  is  idle  to  talk  of  secession;"  the 
national  government  as  it  then  was  "  can 
only  be  dissolved  by  revolution."  That 
struggle  of  dissolution  might  be  longer  and 
fiercer,  —  as  it  was,  —  or  shorter,  and  more 
wordy  than  blood-letting,  —  as  the  seceding 
States  confidently  believed  would  prove  to  be 
the  case,  —  but  a  struggle  there  would  be. 

Historically,  such  were  the  conditions  to 
which  natural  processes  of  development  had 
brought  the  common  country  at  the  mid-de- 
cennium  of  the  century.  People  had  to  elect; 
the  modus  vivendi  was  at  an  end.  —  Was  the 
State  sovereign;  or  was  the  Nation  sovereign  ? 
And,  with  a  shock  of  genuine  surprise  that 
any  doubt  should  exist  on  that  head,  eleven 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  17 

States  arrayed  themselves  on  the  side  of  the 
Sovereignty  of  the  State  and  claimed  the  un 
questioning  allegiance  of  their  citizens;  and 
I  think  it  not  unsafe  to  assert  that  nowhere  did 
the  original  spirit  of  State  Sovereignty  and 
allegiance  to  the  State  then  survive  in  greater 
intensity  and  more  unquestioning  form  than 
in  Virginia,  —  the  "Old  Dominion,"  -the 
mother  of  States  and  of  Presidents.  And  here 
I  approach  a  sociological  factor  in  the  problem 
more  subtle  and  also  more  potent  than  any 
legal  consideration.  It  has  no  standing  in 
Court:  but  the  historian  may  not  ignore  it; 
while,  with  the  biographer  of  Lee,  it  is  cru 
cial.  Upon  it  judgment  hinges.  I  have  not 
time  to  consider  how  or  why  such  a  result 
came  about,  but  of  the  fact  there  can,  I  hold, 
be  no  question,  —  State  pride,  a  sense  of 
individuality,  has  immemorially  entered  more 
largely  and  more  intensely  into  Virginia  and 
Virginians  than  into  any  other  section  or 
community  of  the  country.  Only  in  South 
Carolina  and  among  Carolinians,  on  this 
continent,  was  a  somewhat  similar  pride  of 
locality  and  descent  to  be  found.  There  was 
in  it  a  flavor  of  the  Hidalgo,  —  or  of  the 
pride  which  the  Macgregors  and  Campbells 
took  in  their  clan  and  country.  In  other 
words,  the  Virginian  and  the  Carolinian  had 
in  the  middle  of  the  last  centurv  not  un- 


18  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

dergone   nationalization   to   any  appreciable 
extent. 

But  this,  it  will  be  replied,  though  true  of 
the  ordinary  man  and  citizen,  should  not  have 
been  true  of  the  graduate  of  the  military  acad 
emy,  the  officer  of  the  Army  of  the  United 
States.  Winfield  Scott  and  George  H.  Thomas 
did  not  so  construe  their  allegiance;  when  the 
issue  was  presented,  they  remained  true  to 
their  flag  and  to  their  oaths.  Robert  E.  Lee, 
false  to  his  oath  and  flag,  was  a  renegade! 
The  answer  is  brief  and  to  the  point :  —  the 
conditions  in  the  several  cases  were  not  the 
same,  —  neither  Scott  nor  Thomas  was  Lee. 
It  was  our  Boston  Dr.  Holmes  who  long  ago 
declared  that  the  child's  education  begins 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  it  is 
born;  and  it  is  quite  impossible  to  separate 
any  man  —  least  of  all,  perhaps,  a  full- 
blooded  Virginian  —  from  his  prenatal  tra 
ditions  and  living  environment.  From  them 
he  drew  his  being;  in  them  he  exists.  .Robert 
E.  Lee  was  the  embodiment  of  those  condi 
tions,  the  creature  of  that  environment,  —  a 
Virginian  of  Virginians.  His  father  was 
"Light  Horse  Harry"  Lee,  a  devoted  fol 
lower  of  Washington;  but  in  January,  1792, 
"Light  Horse  Harry"  wrote  to  Mr.  Madi 
son:  "No  consideration  on  earth  could  induce 
me  to  act  a  part,  however  gratifying  to  me, 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  19 

which  could  be  construed  into  disregard  of,  or 
faithlessness  to,  this  Commonwealth;"  and 
later,  when  in  1798  the  Virginia  and  Ken 
tucky  resolutions  were  under  discussion, 
"Light  Horse  Harry"  exclaimed  in  debate, 
"Virginia  is  my  country;  her  will  I  obey, 
however  lamentable  the  fate  to  which  it  may 
subject  me."  Born  in  this  environment,  nur 
tured  in  these  traditions,  to  ask  Lee  to  raise 
his  hand  against  Virginia  was  like  asking 
Montrose  or  the  MacCallum  More  to  head  a 
force  designed  for  the  subjection  of  the  High 
lands  and  the  destruction  of  the  clans.  Where 
such  a  stern  election  is  forced  upon  a  man  as 
then  confronted  Lee,  the  single  thing  the  fair- 
minded  investigator  has  to  take  into  account  is 
the  loyalty,  the  single-mindedness  of  the  elec 
tion.  Was  it  devoid  of  selfishness, --was  it 
free  from  any  baser  and  more  sordid  worldly 
motive,  —  ambition,  pride,  jealousy,  revenge 
or  self-interest?  To  this  question  there  can, 
in  the  case  of  Lee,  be  but  one  answer.  When, 
after  long  and  trying  mental  wrestling,  he 
threw  in  his  fate  with  Virginia,  he  knowingly 
sacrificed  everything  which  man  prizes  most, 
-  his  dearly  beloved  home,  his  means  of  sup 
port,  his  professional  standing,  his  associates, 
a  brilliant  future  assured  to  him.  Born  a 
slaveholder  in  a  race  of  slaveholders,  he  was 
himself  no  defender,  much  less  an  advocate  of 


v>o  LKK'S   CKNTKNNIAL 

slavery;  on  the  contrary,  ho  did  no!  hcsilale 
to  pmumiiiee  it  in  his  place  ^  -.[  moral  and  po 
litical  evil."  Later,  he  manumitted  his  slaves. 

lie  did  not  believe  in  secession;  as  a  ri^hl  rc- 

i~» 

served  under  (lie  Constitution  he  pronounced 

I 

it  "idle  talk:"  but,  as  a  Virginian,  lie  also 
added,  "  il  the  (iov(*nunent  is  disrupted,  I 
sludl  return  to  my  njilive  Slnlo  and  slunv  the 
miseries  of  my  |>eo|)h\  and  save  in  defence 
will  draw  my  sword  on  none/'  Nexl  lo  his 
hi^h  sense  of  allegiance  t(>  Virginia  wns  Lee's 
pride  in  his  profession,  lie  \vas  :\  soldier;  a.s 
such  rank,  and  the  nossihilitv  of  hiirh  coni- 

V  f~> 

mand  a.nd  gre.'il.  aeliiev«»mont,  \V<MH»  very  dear 
to  him.  His  choice  pul  rnnk  :md  coinni.Miid 
behind  him.  I  le  (juicily  and  silently  made  I  he 
greatest  sacrifice  a.  soldier  can  be  asked  to 
make.  With  war  plainly  impending)  the  fore 
most  place  in  I  he  army  of  which  he  was  an 
officer  was  now  tendered  him;  his  answer  was 
to  lay  down  the  commission  he  already  held. 
Virginia  had  been  drawn  into  the  struggle; 
and,  though  he  reeogni/cd  no  necessity  for  the 
state  of  affairs, 4*  in  my  own  person,'*  he  wrote, 
'*  I  had  lo  meet  the  question  whether  I  should 
take  part  against  my  native  States  I  have  not 
been  able  lo  make  up  mv  mind  to  raise  my 
hand  against  mv  relatives,  my  children,  my 

r>  j  v  v 

home."  It  may  have*  been  treason  to  lake  this 
position;  the  man  who  look  il,  uttering  these 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  21 

words  and  sacrificing  as  he  sacrificed,  may 
have  been  technically  a  renegade  to  his  flag, 
—  if  you  please,  false  to  his  allegiance;  but  he 
stands  awaiting  sentence  at  the  bar  of  history 
in  very  respectable  company.  Associated  with 
him  are,  for  instance,  William  of  Orange, 
known  as  The  Silent,  John  Hampden,  the 
original  Pater  Patriae,  Oliver  Cromwell,  the 
Protector  of  the  English  Commonwealth,  Sir 
Harry  Vane,  once  a  governor  of  Massachu 
setts,  and  George  Washington,  a  Virginian  of 
note.  In  the  throng  of  other  offenders  I  am 
also  gratified  to  observe  certain  of  those  from 
whom  I  not  unproudly  claim  descent.  They 
were,  one  and  all,  in  the  sense  referred  to,  false 
to  their  oaths  —  forsworn.  As  to  Robert  E. 
Lee,  individually,  I  can  only  repeat  what  I  have 
already  said,  —  if  in  all  respects  similarly  cir 
cumstanced,  I  hope  I  should  have  been  filial 
and  unselfish  enough  to  have  done  as  Lee 
did."  l  Such  an  utterance  on  my  part  may  be 
"traitorous;  "  but  I  here  render  that  homage. 
In  Massachusetts,  however,  I  could  not 
even  in  1861  have  been  so  placed;  for,  be  it 
because  of  better  or  worse,  Massachusetts  was 
not  Virginia;  —  no  more  Virginia  than  Eng 
land  once  was  Scotland,  or  the  Lowlands  the 
Highlands.  The  environment,  the  ideals,  were 

1  See  Lee  at  Appomattox  and  Other  Papers  (second  edition), 
pp.  411-416. 


22  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

in  no  respect  the  same.    In  Virginia,  Lee  was 
Macgregor;  and,  where  Macgregor  sat,  there 
_.  was  the  head  of  the  table. 

Into  Lee's  subsequent  military  career,  there 
is  no  call  here  to  enter;  nor  shall  I  undertake 
to  compare  him  with  other  great  military 
characters  whether  contemporaneous  or  of 
all  time.  As  I  said  when  I  began,  the  topic 
has  been  thoroughly  discussed  by  others ;  and, 
moreover,  the  time  limitation  here  again  con 
fronts  me.  I  must  press  on.  Suffice  it  for 
me,  as  one  of  those  then  opposed  in  arms  to 
Lee,  however  subordinate  the  capacity,  to 
admit  at  once  that,  as  a  leader,  he  conducted 
operations  on  the  highest  plane.  Whether 
acting  on  the  defensive  upon  the  soil  of  his 
native  State,  or  leading  his  army  into  the 
enemy's  country,  he  was  humane,  self-re 
strained  and  strictly  observant  of  the  most 
advanced  rules  of  civilized  warfare.  He  re 
spected  the  non-combatant;  nor  did  he  ever 
permit  the  wanton  destruction  of  private  pro 
perty.  His  famous  Chambersburg  order  was 
a  model  which  any  invading  general  would 
do  well  to  make  his  own ;  and  I  repeat  now 
what  I  have  heretofore  had  occasion  to  say, 
"I  doubt  if  a  hostile  force  of  an  equal  size 
ever  advanced  into  an  enemy's  country,  or 
fell  back  from  it  in  retreat,  leaving  behind 
less  cause  of  hate  and  bitterness  than  did  the 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  23 

Army  of  Northern  Virginia  in  that  memorable 
campaign  which  culminated  at  Gettysburg." 

And  yet  that  Gettysburg  campaign  is  an  epi 
sode  in  Lee's  military  career  which  I  am  loth 
wholly  to  pass  over;  for  the  views  I  entertain 
of  it  are  not  in  all  respects  those  generally  held. 
Studied  in  the  light  of  results,  that  campaign 
has  been  criticised;  the  crucial  attack  of  Get 
tysburg's  third  day  has  been  pronounced  a  mur 
derous  persistence  in  a  misconception;  and, 
among  Confederate  writers  especially,  the  effort 
has  been  to  relieve  Lee  of  responsibility  f  or  final 
miscarriage,  transferring  it  to  his  lieutenants. 
As  a  result  reached  from  participation  in  those 
events  and  subsequent  study  of  them,  briefly 
let  me  say  I  concur  in  none  of  these  conclu 
sions.  Taking  the  necessary  chances  incident 
to  all  warfare  on  a  large  scale  into  considera 
tion,  the  Gettysburg  campaign  was  in  my 
opinion  timely,  admirably  designed,  energeti 
cally  executed,  and  brought  to  a  close  with 
consummate  military  skill.  A  well  considered 
offensive  thrust  of  the  most  deadly  character, 
intelligently  aimed  at  the  opponent's  heart,  its 
failure  was  of  the  narrowest;  and  the  disaster 
to  the  Confederate  side  which  that  failure 
might  readily  have  involved  was  no  less  skil 
fully  than  successfully  averted. 

I  cannot  here  and  now  enter  into  details. 
But  I  hold  that  credit,  and  the  consequent 


24  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

measure  of  applause,  in  the  outcome  of  that 
campaign  belong  to  Lee's  opponent,  and  not 
to  him.  All  the  chances  were  in  Lee's  favor, 
and  he  should  have  won  a  great  victory;  and 
Meade  should  have  sustained  a  decisive  de 
feat.  As  it  was,  Meade  triumphantly  held  his 
ground;  Lee  suffered  a  terrible  repulse,  his 
deadly  thrust  was  foiled,  and  his  campaign 
was  a  failure. 

So  far  as  Lee's  general  plan  of  campaign, 
and  the  movements  which  culminated  in  the 
battle  of  Gettysburg,  were  concerned,  in  war, 
be  it  always  and  ever  remembered,  a  leader 
must  take  some  chances,  and  mistakes  will 
occur;  but  the  mistakes  are  rarely,  if  ever,  all 
on  one  side.  They  tend  to  counterbalance  each 
other;  and,  commanders  and  commanded 
being  at  all  equal,  not  unseldom  it  is  the  bal 
ance  of  misconceptions,  shortcomings,  mis 
carriages,  and  the  generally  unforeseen  and 
indeed  unforeseeable,  which  tips  the  scale  to 
victory  or  defeat.  I  have  said  that  I  proposed 
to  avoid  comparisons;  at  best  such  are  in 
vidious,  and,  under  present  circumstances, 
might  from  me  be  considered  as  doubtful  in 
matter  of  taste.  I  think,  however,  some  things 
too  obvious  to  admit  of  denial;  or,  conse 
quently,  to  suggest  comparison.  About  every 
crisp  military  aphorism  is  as  matter  of  course 
attributed  to  Napoleon;  and  so  Napoleon  is 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  25 

alleged  first  to  have  remarked  that  —  "In 
war,  men  are  nothing;  a  man  is  everything." 
And,  as  formerly  a  soldier  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  I  now  stand  appalled  at  the  risk 
I  unconsciously  ran  anterior  to  July,  1863, 
when  confronting  the  Army  of  Northern  Vir 
ginia,  commanded  as  it  then  was  and  as  we 
were.  The  situation  was  in  fact  as  bad  with 
us  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  as  it  was  with 
the  Confederates  in  the  Southwest.  The  un 
fortunate  Pemberton  there  was  simply  not 
in  the  same  class  as  Grant  and  Sherman,  to 
whom  he  found  himself  opposed.  Results 
there  followed  accordingly.  So,  in  Virginia, 
Lee  and  Jackson  made  an  extraordinary,  a 
most  exceptional  combination.  They  out 
classed  McClellan  and  Burnside,  Pope  and 
Hooker;  outclassed  them  sometimes  terribly, 
sometimes  ludicrously,  always  hopelessly :  and 
results  in  that  case  also  followed  accordingly. 
That  we  were  not  utterly  destroyed  con 
stitutes  a  flat  and  final  refutal  of  the  truth  of 
Napoleon's  aphorism.  If  we  did  not  realize 
the  facts  of  the  situation  in  this  respect,  our 
opponents  did.  Let  me  quote  the  words  of 
one  of  them:  "  There  was,  however,  one 
point  of  great  interest  in  [the  rapid  succession 
of  the  Federal  commanders],  and  that  was 
our  amazement  that  an  army  could  maintain 
even  so  much  as  its  organization  under  the 


26  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

depressing  strain  of  those  successive  appoint 
ments  and  removals  of  its  commanding  gen 
erals.  And  to-day  (1903)  I,  for  one,  regard 
the  fact  that  it  did  preserve  its  cohesion  and 
its  fighting  power  under,  and  in  spite  of  such 
experiences,  as  furnishing  impressive  demon 
stration  of  the  high  character  and  intense 
loyalty  of  our  historic  foe,  the  Federal  Army 
of  the  Potomac."1 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  until  the 
death  of  Jackson  and  the  Gettysburg  cam 
paign  we  were  thus  glaringly  outclassed,  and 
at  a  corresponding  disadvantage  in  every  re 
spect  save  mere  men  and  equipment,  the  one 
noticeable  feature  of  the  succession  of  Vir 
ginia  campaigns  from  that  of  1862  to  that 
of  1864,  was  their  obstinacy  and  indecisive 
character.  The  advantage  would  be  some 
times  on  one  side,  sometimes  on  the  other: 
but  neither  side  could  secure  an  indisputable 
supremacy.  This  was  markedly  the  case  at 
Gettysburg;  and  yet,  judging  by  the  Con 
federate  accounts  of  that  campaign  which 
have  met  my  eye,  the  inference  would  be  that 
the  Union  forces  labored  under  no  serious 
disadvantage,  while  Lee's  plans  and  tactics 
were  continually  compromised  by  untoward 
accident,  or  the  precipitation  or  remissness 
of  his  subordinates.  My  study  of  what  then 

1  Stiles,  Four  Years  under  Marse  Robert,  p.  21. 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  27 

took  place  leads  me  to  a  wholly  opposite  con 
clusion.  Well  conceived  and  vigorously  car 
ried  out  as  that  campaign  was  on  the  part 
of  the  Confederate  leader,  the  preponderance 
of  the  accidental  —  the  blunders,  the  unfore 
seeable,  the  misconceptions  and  the  miscar 
riages  —  was  distinctly  in  Lee's  favor.  On 
any  fair  weighing  of  chances,  he  should  have 
won  a  decisive  victory;  as  a  matter  of  actual 
outcome,  he  and  his  army  ought  to  have  been 
destroyed.  As  usual,  on  that  theatre  of  war  at 
the  time,  neither  result  came  about. 

First  as  to  the  chapter  of  accidents,  —  the 
misconceptions,  miscarriages  and  shortcom 
ings.  If,  as  has  been  alleged,  an  essential  por 
tion  of  Lee's  force  was  at  one  time  out  of 
reach  and  touch,  and  if,  at  the  critical  moment, 
a  lieutenant  was  not  promptly  in  place  at  a 
given  hour,  on  the  Union  side  an  unforeseen 
change  of  supreme  command  went  into  effect 
when  battle  was  already  joined,  and  the  newly 
appointed  commander  had  no  organized  staff; 
his  army  was  not  concentrated;  his  strongest 
corps  was  over  thirty  miles  from  the  point  of 
conflict;  and  the  two  corps  immediately  en 
gaged  should  have  been  destroyed  in  detail 
before  reinforcements  could  have  reached 
them.  In  addition  to  all  this  —  superadded 
thereto  —  the  most  skilful  general  and  per 
haps  the  fiercest  fighter  on  the  Union  side  was 


28  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

killed  at  the  outset,  and  his  line  of  battle 
was  almost  fatally  disordered  by  the  miscon 
ception  of  a  corps  commander. 

The  chapter  of  accidents  thus  reads  all  in 
Lee's  favor.  But,  while  Lee  on  any  fair 
weighing  of  chances  stands  in  my  judgment 
more  than  justified  both  in  his  conception 
of  the  campaign  and  in  every  material  strate 
gic  move  made  in  it,  he  none  the  less  funda 
mentally  misconceived  the  situation,  with 
consequences  which  should  have  been  fatal 
both  to  him.  and  to  his  command.  Frederick 
did  the  same  at  Kunersdorf;  Napoleon,  at 
Waterloo.  In  the  first  place,  Lee  had  at  that 
time  supreme  confidence  in  his  command; 
and  he  had  grounds  for  it.  As  he  himself 
then  wrote  —  "  There  never  were  such  men 
in  an  army  before.  They  will  go  anywhere 
and  do  anything,  if  properly  led."  And, 
for  myself,  I  do  not  think  the  estimate  thus 
expressed  was  exaggerated;  speaking  delib 
erately,  having  faced  some  portions  of  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia  at  the  time  and 
having  since  reflected  much  on  the  occur 
rences  of  that  momentous  period,  I  do  not 
believe  that  any  more  formidable  or  better 
organized  and  animated  force  was  ever  set 
in  motion  than  that  which  Lee  led  across 
the  Potomac  in  the  early  summer  of  1863. 
It  was  essentially  an  army  of  fighters,  —  men 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  29 

who,  individually  or  in  the  mass,  could  be 
depended  on  for  any  feat  of  arms  in  the  power 
of  mere  mortals  to  accomplish.  They  would 
blanch  at  no  danger.  This  Lee  from  experi 
ence  knew.  He  had  tested  them;  they  had 
full  confidence  in  him.  He  also  thought  he 
knew  his  opponent;  and  here  too  his  recent 
experience  justified  him. 

The  disasters  which  had  befallen  the  Con 
federates  in  the  Southwest  in  the  spring  and 
early  summer  of  1863  had  to  find  compensa 
tion  in  the  East.  The  exigencies  of  warfare 
necessitated  it.  Some  risk  must  be  incurred. 
So  Lee  determined  to  strike  at  his  opponent's 
heart.  He  had  what  he  believed  to  be  the 
better  weapon;  and  he  had  reason  for  con 
sidering  himself  incomparably  the  superior 
swordsman.  He  was;  of  that  he  had  at  Chan- 
cellorsville  satisfied  himself  and  the  world. 
Then  came  the  rapid,  aggressive  move;  and 
the  long,  desperately  contested  struggle  at 
Gettysburg,  culminating  in  that  historic 
charge  of  Pickett's  Virginia  division.  Para 
doxical  as  it  may  sound,  in  view  of  the  result, 
that  charge  —  what  those  men  did  —  justified 
Lee.  True,  those  who  made  the  charge  did 
not  accomplish  the  impossible;  but  towards 
it  they  did  all  that  mortal  men  could  do. 
But  it  is  urged  that  Lee  should  have  recog 
nized  the  impossible  when  face  to  face  con- 


30  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

fronted  by  it,  and  not  have  directed  brave 
men  to  lay  down  their  lives  in  the  vain  effort 
to  do  it.  That  is  true;  and,  as  Lee  is  said  to 
have  once  remarked  in  another  connection, 
"Even  as  poor  a  soldier  as  I  am  can  gen 
erally  discover  mistakes  after  it  is  all  over." 
After  Gettysburg  was  over,  like  Frederick 
at  Kunersdorf  and  Napoleon  at  Waterloo, 
Lee  doubtless  discovered  his  mistake.  It 
was  a  very  simple  one:  he  undervalued  his 
opponent.  The  temper  of  his  own  weapon 
he  knew;  he  made  no  mistake  there.  His 
mistake  lay  in  his  estimate  of  his  antagonist: 
but  that  estimate  again  was  based  on  his  own 
recent  experience,  though  in  other  fields. 

On  the  other  hand,  from  the  day  I  rode 
over  the  field  of  Gettysburg  immediately 
following  the  fight,  to  that  which  now  is,  I 
have  fully  and  most  potently  believed  that 
only  some  disorganized  fragments  of  Lee's 
army  should  after  that  battle  have  found 
their  way  back  to  Virginia.  The  war  should 
have  collapsed  within  sixty  days  thereafter. 
For  eighteen  hours  after  the  repulse  of  Pickett's 
division,  I  have  always  felt  and  now  feel,  the 
fate  of  the  Army  of  Virginia  was  as  much  in 
General  Meade's  hands  as  was  the  fate  of 
the  army  led  by  Napoleon  in  the  hands  of 
Bliicher  on  the  night  of  Waterloo.  As  an 
aggressive  force,  the  Confederate  army  was 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  31 

fought  out.  It  might  yet  put  forth  a  fierce 
defensive  effort;  it  was  sure  to  die  game:  but 
it  was  impotent  for  attack.  Meade  had  one 
entire  corps  —  perhaps  his  best,  --  his  Sixth, 
commanded  by  Sedgwick  —  intact  and  in 
reserve.  It  lay  there  cold,  idle,  formidable. 
The  true  counter  movement  for  the  fourth 
day  of  continuous  fighting  would  on  Meade's 
part  have  been  an  exact  reversal  of  Lee's 
own  plan  of  battle  for  the  third  day.  That 
plan,  as  described  by  Fitzhugh  Lee,  was  simple. 
"His  [Lees]  purpose  was  to  turn  the  enemy's 
left  flank  with  his  First  Corps,  and,  after 
the  work  began  there,  to  demonstrate  against 
his  lines  with  the  others  in  order  to  prevent 
the  threatened  flank  from  being  reinforced, 
these  demonstrations  to  be  converted  into 
a  real  attack  as  the  flanking  wave  of  battle 
rolled  over  the  troops  in  their  front."  What 
Lee  thus  proposed  for  Meade's  army  on  the 
third  day,  Meade  should  unquestionably 
have  returned  on  Lee's  army  upon  the  fourth 
day.  Sedgwick's  corps  should  then  have 
assailed  Lee's  right  and  rear.  I  once  asked 
a  leading  Confederate  general,  who  had  been 
in  the  very  thick  of  it  at  Gettysburg,  what 
would  have  been  the  outcome  had  Meade, 
within  two  hours  of  the  repulse  of  Pickett, 
ordered  Sedgwick  to  move  off  to  the  left,  and, 
occupying  Lee's  line  of  retreat,  proceeded  to 


32  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

envelop  the  Confederate  right,  while,  early 
the  following  morning,  Meade  had  com 
manded  a  general  advance.  The  answer  I 
received  was  immediate:  "Without  ques 
tion  we  would  have  been  destroyed.  We  all 
that  night  fully  expected  it;  and  could  not 
understand  next  day  why  we  were  unmo 
lested.  My  ammunition  "  -  for  he  was  an 
officer  of  artillery  —  "was  exhausted." 

But  in  all  this,  as  in  every  speculation  of 
the  sort,  —  and  the  history  of  warfare  is 
replete  with  them,  —  the  "if"  is  much  in  evi 
dence;  as  much  in  evidence,  indeed,  as  it 
is  in  a  certain  familiar  Shakesperian  dis 
quisition.  I  here  introduce  what  I  have  said 
on  this  topic  simply  to  illustrate  what  may 
be  described  as  the  balance  of  miscarriages 
inseparable  from  warfare.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  manner  in  which  Lee  met  disaster  at 
Gettysburg,  and  the  combination  of  serene 
courage,  and  consequent  skill,  with  which  he 
extricated  his  army  from  a  most  critical  situa 
tion  commands  admiration.  I  would  here  say 
nothing  depreciatory  of  General  Meade.  He 
was  an  accomplished  officer  as  well  as  a 
brave  soldier.  Placed  suddenly  in  a  most 
trying  position,  —  assigned  to  chief  command 
when  battle  was  already  joined,  —  untried  in 
his  new  sphere  of  action,  and  caught  unpre 
pared,  —  he  fought  at  Gettysburg  a  stubborn, 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  33 

gallant  fight.  With  chances  at  the  beginning 
heavily  against  him,  he  saved  the  day.  Per 
sonally,  I  was  later  under  deep  obligation  to 
General  Meade.  He  too  had  character.  None 
the  less,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  I  fully 
believe  that  on  the  fourth  day  at  Gettysburg 
Meade  had  but  firmly  to  close  his  hand,  and 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  was  crushed. 
Perhaps  under  all  the  circumstances  it  was 
too  much  to  have  expected  of  him;  certainly 
it  was  not  done.  Then  Lee  in  turn  did  avail 
himself  of  his  opportunity.  Skilfully,  proudly 
though  sullenly,  preserving  an  unbroken  front, 
he  withdrew  to  Virginia.  That  withdrawal 
was  masterly. 

Narrowly  escaping  destruction  at  Gettys 
burg,  my  next  contention  is  that  Lee  and  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia  never  sustained 
defeat.  Finally,  it  is  true,  succumbing  to  ex 
haustion,  to  the  end  they  were  not  overthrown 
in  fight.  And  here  I  approach  a  large  topic, 
but  one  closely  interwoven  with  Lee's  mili 
tary  career;  in  fact,  as  I  see  it,  the  explana 
tion  of  what  finally  occurred.  What  then  was 
it  that  brought  about  the  collapse  of  the  Army 
of  Northern  Virginia,  and  the  consequent 
downfall  of  the  Confederacy  ?  The  literature 
of  the  War  of  Secession  now  constitutes  a 
library  in  itself.  Especially  is  this  true  of  it  in 
its  military  aspects.  The  shelves  are  crowded 


34  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

with  memoirs  and  biographies  of  its  generals, 
the  stories  of  its  campaigns,  the  records  and 
achievements  of  its  armies,  its  army  corps  and 
its  regiments.  Yet  I  make  bold  to  say  that 
no  well  and  philosophically  considered  nar 
rative  of  the  struggle  has  yet  appeared;  nor 
has  any  satisfactory  or  comprehensive  ex 
planation  been  given  of  its  extraordinary  and 
unanticipated  outcome.  Let  me  briefly  set 
it  forth  as  I  see  it;  only  by  so  doing  can  I 
explain  what  I  mean. 

Tersely  put,  dealing  only  with  outlines, 
the  southern  community  in  1861  precipitated 
a  conflict  on  the  slavery  issue,  in  implicit 
reliance  on  its  own  warlike  capacity  and  re 
sources,  the  extent  and  very  defensible  char 
acter  of  its  territory,  and,  above  all,  on  its 
complete  control  of  cotton  as  the  great  staple 
textile  fabric  of  modern  civilization.  That 
the  seceding  States  fully  believed  in  the  jus 
tice  of  their  cause,  and  confidently  appealed 
to  it,  I  do  not  question,  much  less  deny.  For 
present  purposes  let  this  be  conceded  in  full. 
But,  historically,  it  is  equally  clear  that  to 
vindicate  the  right,  next  to  their  own  man 
hood  and  determination,  they  relied  in  all 
possible  confidence  on  their  apparently  ab 
solute  control  of  one  commercial  staple. 
When,  therefore,  in  1858,  with  the  shadow 
of  the  impending  conflict  darkening  the  hori- 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  35 

zon,  a  thoughtful  senator  from  South  Carolina, 
one  on  whom  the  mantle  of  Calhoun  had 
fallen,  declared  that  "Cotton  is  King," 
that  "no  power  on  earth  dares  to  make  war 
on  it,"  that  "without  firing  a  gun,  without 
drawing  a  sword,"  the  cotton-producing 
South  could,  if  war  was  declared  upon  it, 
bring  "the  whole  world"  to  its  feet,  he  only 
gave  utterance  to  what  was  in  the  South  ac 
cepted  as  a  fundamental  article  of  political 
and  economical  faith.  Suggesting  the  con 
tingency  that  no  cotton  was  forthcoming 
from  the  South  for  a  period  of  three  years, 
the  same  senator  declared,  "this  is  certain: 
England  would  topple  headlong  and  carry 
the  whole  civilized  world  with  her,  save  the 
South.  Who,"  he  then  exclaimed,  "that  has 
looked  on  recent  events,  can  doubt  that  cotton 
is  supreme."  In  case  of  conflict,  cotton,  if  it 
went  forth,  was  to  supply  the  South  with  the 
sinews  of  warfare;  if  it  did  not  go  forth  the 
lack  of  it  would  bring  about  European  civil 
commotion,  and  compel  foreign  intervention. 
In  either  case  the  South  was  secure.  As  to  a 
maritime  blockade  of  the  South,  shutting  it  up 
to  die  of  inanition,  the  idea  was  chimerical. 
No  such  feat  of  maritime  force  ever  had  been 
accomplished,  it  was  claimed ;  nor  was  it  pos 
sible  of  accomplishment.  To  "talk  of  put 
ting  up  a  wall  of  fire  around  eight  hundred 


36  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

and  fifty  thousand  square  miles"  situated  as 
the  Confederacy  was,  with  its  twelve  thousand 
miles  of  seacoast,  was  pronounced  too  "ab 
surd"  for  serious  discussion.  And,  certainly, 
that  no  such  thing  had  ever  yet  been  done  was 
undeniable.  But,  even  supposing  it  were  pos 
sible  of  accomplishment,  the  doing  it  would 
but  the  more  effectively  play  the  Confederate 
game.  It  would  compel  intervention.  As 
well  shut  off  bread  from  the  manufacturing 
centres  of  Europe  as  stop  their  supply  of  cot 
ton.  In  any  or  either  event,  and  in  any  con 
tingency  which  might  arise,  the  victory  of  the 
Confederacy  was  assured.  And  this  theory  of 
the  situation  and  its  outcome  was  accepted  by 
the  southern  community  as  indisputable. 

What  occurred?  In  each  case  that  which 
had  been  pronounced  impossible  of  occur 
rence.  On  land  the  Confederacy  had  an 
ample  force  of  men,  they  swarmed  to  the 
standards;  and  no  better  or  more  reliable 
material  was  ever  gathered  together.  Well 
and  skilfully  marshalled,  the  Confederate 
soldier  did  on  the  march  and  in  battle  all  that 
needed  to  be  done.  Nor  were  the  two  sides 
unequally  matched  so  far  as  the  land  arrays 
were  concerned.  As  Lee  with  his  instinctive 
military  sense  put  it  even  in  the  closing  stages 
of  the  struggle  —  "The  proportion  of  experi 
enced  troops  is  larger  in  our  army  than  in  that 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  37 

of  the  enemy,  while  his  numbers  exceed  our 
own."  And  in  warfare  experience,  combined 
with  an  advantageous  defensive,  counts  for  a 
great  deal.  This  was  so  throughout  the  con 
flict;  and  yet  the  Confederate  cause  sank  in 
failure.  It  did  so  to  the  complete  surprise  of 
a  bewildered  world;  for,  in  Europe,  the  ulti 
mate  success  of  the  South  was  accepted  as  a 
foregone  conclusion.  To  such  an  extent  was 
this  the  case  that  the  wisest  and  most  far- 
seeing  of  English  public  men  did  not  hesitate 
to  stake  their  reputation  for  foresight  upon  it 
as  a  result.  How  was  the  wholly  unexpected 
actual  outcome  brought  about?  The  simple 
answer  is,  —  The  Confederacy  collapsed  from 
inanition.  Suffering  such  occasional  reverses 
and  defeats  as  are  incidental  to  all  warfare,  it 
was  never  crushed  in  battle  or  on  the  field, 
until  its  strength  was  sapped  away  by  want  of 
food.  It  died  of  exhaustion,  —  starved  and 
gasping! 

Take  a  living  organism,  whatever  it  may  be, 
place  it  in  a  vessel  hermetically  sealed,  and 
attach  to  that  vessel  an  air  pump.  You  know 
what  follows.  It  is  needless  to  describe  it.  No 
matter  how  strong  or  fierce  or  self-confident  it 
may  be,  the  victim  dies;  growing  weaker  by 
degrees,  it  finally  collapses.  That  was  the 
exact  condition  and  fate  of  the  Confederacy. 
What  had  been  confidently  pronounced  im- 


38  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

possible  was  done.  The  Confederacy  was 
sealed  up  within  itself  by  the  blockade;  and 
the  complete  exclusion  of  cotton  from  the 
manufacturing  centres  of  Europe  did  not 
cause  revolution  there,  nor  compel  interven 
tion  here.  Man's  foresight  once  more  came 
to  grief.  As  usual,  it  was  the  unexpected 
which  occurred. 

Thus  the  two  decisive  defeats  of  the  Con 
federacy,  —  those  which  really  brought  about 
its  downfall  and  compelled  Lee  to  lay  down  his 
arms,  —  were  inflicted  not  before  Vicksburg 
nor  yet  in  Virginia,  —  not  in  the  field  at  all ; 
they  were  sustained,  the  one,  almost  by  default, 
on  the  ocean ;  the  other,  most  fatal  of  all,  after 
sharpest  struggle  in  Lancashire.  The  story 
of  that  Lancashire  Cotton  Famine  of  1861  to 
1864  has  never  been  adequately  told  in  con 
nection  with  our  Civil  War.  Simply  ignored 
by  the  standard  historians,  it  was  yet  the  Con 
federacy's  fiercest  fight,  and  its  most  decisive 
as  well  as  most  far-reaching  defeat.  A  mo 
mentous  conflict,  the  supremacy  of  the  Union 
on  the  ocean  hung  on  its  issue;  and  upon  that 
supremacy  depended  every  considerable  land 
operation:  —  the  retention  by  the  Confeder 
acy  of  New  Orleans,  and  the  consequent  con 
trol  of  the  Mississippi;  Sherman's  march  to 
the  sea;  the  movement  through  the  Caro- 
linas;  the  operations  before  Petersburg;  gen- 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  39 

erally,  the  maintenance  of  the  Confederate 
armies  in  the  field.  It  is  in  fact  no  exaggera 
tion  to  assert  that  both  the  conception  and  the 
carrying  out  of  every  large  Union  operation  of 
the  war  without  a  single  exception  hinged  and 
depended  on  complete  national  maritime  su 
premacy.  It  is  equally  indisputable  that  the 
struggle  in  Lancashire  was  decisive  of  that 
supremacy.  As  Lee  himself  admitted  in  the 
death  agony  of  the  Confederacy,  he  had  never 
believed  it  could  in  the  long  run  make  good  its 
independence  "unless  Foreign  Powers  should, 
directly  or  indirectly,  assist"  it  in  so  doing. 
Thus,  strange  as  it  sounds,  it  follows  as  a  logi 
cal  consequence  that  Lee  and  his  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia  were  first  reduced  to  inani 
tion,  and  finally  compelled  to  succumb,  as  the 
result  of  events  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlan 
tic,  largely  stimulated  by  a  moral  impulse  over 
which  they  could  exert  no  control.  The  great 
and  loudly  trumpeted  cotton  campaign  of  the 
Confederacy  was  its  most  signal  failure;  and 
that  failure  was  decisive  of  the  war. 

It  is  very  curious,  at  times  almost  comical, 
to  trace  historical  parallels.  Plutarch  is, 
of  course,  the  standard  exemplar  of  that  sort 
of  treatment.  Among  other  great  careers, 
Plutarch,  as  every  college  boy  knows,  tells  the 
story  of  King  Pyrrhus,  the  Epirot.  A  great 
captain,  Pyrrhus  devised  a  military  formation 


40  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

which  his  opponents  could  not  successfully 
face,  and  his  career  was  consequently  one  of 
victory.  But  at  last  he  met  his  fate.  Assaulting 
the  town  of  Argos,  he  became  entangled  in  its 
streets;  and,  fighting  his  way  out,  he  was 
struck  down,  and  killed,  by  a  tile  thrown  from 
a  house-top  by  an  Argive  woman.  The  Con 
federacy,  and,  through  the  Confederacy,  Lee 
underwent  a  not  dissimilar  fate ;  for,  as  an  his 
torical  fact,  it  was  a  missile  from  a  woman's 
hand  which  was  decisive  of  that  Lancashire 
conflict,  and  so  doomed  the  Confederacy.  A 
startling  proposition ;  but  proof  quite  irrefuta 
ble  of  it  exists  in  a  publication  to  which  as  an 
authority  no  Southern  writer  at  least  will  take 
exception,  the  organ  established  in  London  by 
the  agents  of  the  Confederacy  in  1862.  Sus 
tained  as  long  as  the  conflict  continued  from 
Confederate  funds,  with  a  view  to  influencing 
European  public  opinion,  the  Index,  as  it 
was  called,  collapsed  with  the  Confederacy  in 
July,  1865.  Naturally  those  in  charge  of  it 
watched  with  feverish  interest  the  progress  of 
the  cotton  famine.  Not  only  was  the  British 
pocket  nerve  touched  at  its  most  sensitive 
point,  but  in  Lancashire  starvation  empha 
sized  financial  distress.  The  pressure  thus 
brought  to  bear  on  public  opinion  in  Great 
Britain,  and,  through  that  public  opinion,  on 
the  policy  of  Europe,  was  confidently  counted 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  41 

on  for  results  decisive  of  the  American  strug 
gle.  Ten  years  before  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe 
had  launched  through  the  press  her  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin.  Translated  into  every  civil 
ized  tongue,  it  had  soon  become  world  litera 
ture.  In  Great  Britain,  and  especially  in  Lan 
cashire,  it  "carried  the  new  gospel  to  every 
cabin  in  the  land."  Whoever  in  those  days 
read  anything,  read  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin. 
That  it  was  a  correct  portrayal  of  conditions 
actually  existing  in  the  region  wherein  the 
incidents  narrated  were  supposed  to  have 
occurred,  is  not  now  to  be  considered.  That 
Uncle  Tom  himself  was  a  type  of  his  race,  or 
indeed  even  a  possibility  in  it,  few  would  now 
be  disposed  to  contend.1  Ethically,  he  was  a 
Christian  martyr  of  the  most  advanced  descrip 
tion  and,  on  the  large  class  who  accepted  the 
work  as  a  correct  portrayal,  the  pathetic  story 
and  cruel  fate  of  the  colored  saint,  moralist 
and  philosopher  made  an  indelible  impression. 
Indeed,  that  female  and  sentimentalist  por 
trayal  lent  a  force  which  has  not  yet  spent  it 
self  to  the  contention  that  the  only  difference 
between  the  Ethiopian  and  the  Caucasian  is 

1  J.  C.  Read,  The  Brothers'  War,  pp.  194-198.  There  is  in 
Mr.  Read's  book,  published  fifty  years  after  the  appearance  of 
Mrs.  Stowe's  historic  tale  and  forty  years  after  the  Proclama 
tion  of  Emancipation,  a  chapter  (ix)  entitled,  "Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,"  in  which  are  to  be  found  the  views  of  an  observant  and 
reflecting  Georgian  on  the  statement  in  the  text. 


42  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

epidermal;  the  negro  being  in  fact  merely  a 
white  man  —  a  Yankee,  if  you  please  —  who, 
having  a  black  skin,  has  never  been  given  a 
chance!  Nay,  more!  if  Uncle  Tom  and  Le- 
gree  were  to  be  accepted  as  types,  the  black 
man  was  superior  naturally  to  the  white;  for 
Uncle  Tom  was  a  fully  developed  moralist, 
while  Legree  was  a  demon  incarnate.  And 
this  presentation  of  life  and  manners,  and  this 
portrayal  of  typical  racial  characters  were  in 
Lancashire  implicitly  accepted  as  gospel 
truth!  Such  indisputably  was  the  fact;  and, 
when  the  final  issue  was  joined,  the  fact  told 
heavily  against  the  Confederacy.  In  contem 
plation  of  it,  —  realizing  the  handicap  thus 
imposed,  the  burden  of  which  at  the  moment 
the  historian  has  since  ignored,  and  few  con 
sequently  now  appreciate,  —  the  writers  for 
the  Index  fairly  cried  aloud  in  agony.  Their 
wail,  long  repeated,  has  in  it  as  now  read  an 
element  of  the  comic.  The  patience  of  the  vic 
tims  of  the  cotton  famine,  they  declared,  was 
the  extraordinary  feature  of  the  foreign  situa 
tion;  and  the  agents  of  the  Confederacy  noted 
with  unconcealed  dismay  the  absence  of  po 
litical  demonstrations  calculated  to  urge  on  a 
not  unwilling  Palmerston  ministry  "its  duty 
to  its  suffering  subjects."  There  was  but  one 
way  of  accounting  for  it.  Uncle  Tom  and 
Legree  were  respectively  doing  their  work.  So 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  43 

it  was   that   the   Index  despairingly  at   last 
declared  —  "The  emancipation  of  the  negro 
from  the  slavery  of  Mrs.  Beecher  Stowe's  he 
roes  is  the  one  idea  of  the  millions  of  British 
who  know  no  better,  and  do  not  care  to  know." 
Like  the  Cherubim  with  the  flaming  sword 
this  sentiment  stood  between  Lancashire  and 
cotton;  and  the  inviolate  blockade  made  pos 
sible   the   subjugation   of   the    Confederacy.    ;$  t  *- 
With  Pyrrhus,  it  was  the  tile  thrown  by  a    , 
woman  from  the  house-top;   with  Lee,  it  was 
a  book  by  a  woman  issued  from  the  printing 
press!    The  missiles  were  equally  fatal.    It 
was  only  a  difference  of  time,  and  its  changed  /Jrw/£ 
conditions. 

Foreign  intervention  being  thus  withheld, 
and  the  control  of  the  sea  by  the  Union  made 
absolute,  the  blockade  was  gradually  per 
fected.  The  fateful  process  then  went  steadily 
on.  Armies  might  be  resisted  in  the  field ;  the 
working  of  the  air  pump  could  not  be  stopped : 
and,  day  and  night,  season  after  season,  the 
air  pump  worked.  So  the  atmosphere  of  the 
Confederacy  became  more  and  more  attenu 
ated,  respiration  sensibly  harder.  Air-hole  on 
air-hole  was  closed.  First  New  Orleans  fell; 
then  Vicksburg,  and  the  Mississippi  flowed 
free;  next  Sherman,  securely  counting  on  the 
control  of  the  sea  as  a  base  of  new  operations 
on  land,  penetrated  the  vitals  of  the  Confeder- 


44  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

acy;  then,  relying  still  on  maritime  coopera 
tion,  he  pursued  his  almost  unopposed  way 
through  the  Carolinas;  while  Grant,  with  his 
base  secure  upon  the  James  and  Fortress 
Monroe,  beleaguered  Richmond.  Lee  with  his 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia  calmly,  but  watch 
fully  and  resolutely,  confronted  him.  The 
Confederate  lines  were  long  and  thin,  guarded 
by  poorly  clad  and  half-fed  men.  But,  veter 
ans,  they  held  their  assailants  firmly  at  bay. 
As  Lee,  however,  fully  realized,  it  was  only  a 
question  of  time.  The  working  of  the  air 
pump  was  beyond  his  sphere  either  of  in 
fluence  or  operations.  Nothing  could  stop  it. 
As  early  as  the  close  of  1863  Lee  wrote  of  his 
men,  "Thousands  are  bare-footed,  a  greater 
number  partially  shod,  and  nearly  all  without 
overcoats,  blankets,  or  warm  clothing;"  and 
later,  in  the  dead  of  winter,  referring  to  the 
elementary  necessities  of  any  successful  war 
fare,  he  said,  --  "The  supply,  by  running  the 
blockade,  has  become  so  precarious  that  I 
think  we  should  turn  our  attention  to  our  own 
resources  ...  as  a  further  dependence  upon 
those  from  abroad  can  result  in  nothing  but 
increase  of  suffering  and  want."  The  conclu 
sion  here  drawn,  while  necessary,  was  ex 
tremely  suggestive.  "Our  own  resources!" 
-  the  Confederacy  had  always  prided  itself 
on  being  a  purely  agricultural  community. 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  45 

With  institutions  patriarchal  in  character,  it 
had  looked  upon  the  people  of  the  North  as  its 
agents  and  factors,  and  those  of  Europe  as  its 
skilled  workmen  and  artisans;  and  now  that 
community  shut  up  within  its  own  limits,  un 
der  conditions  of  warfare  active  and  severe, 
had  only  itself  to  rely  upon  for  a  supply  of 
everything  its  defenders  needed,  from  muni 
tions  to  shoes,  from  blankets  to  medicines  and 
even  soap.  Viewed  in  a  half  century's  per 
spective,  the  situation  was  simply  and  mani 
festly  impossible  of  continuance.  To  it  there 
could  be  but  one  outcome;  and  when  at  last 
on  the  16th  of  January,  1865,  the  telegraph 
announced  the  fall  of  Fort  Fisher,  the  Con 
federacy  felt  itself  hermetically  sealed.  Wil 
mington,  its  last  breathing  hole,  was  closed. 
Still,  not  the  less  for  that,  the  air  pump  kept 
on  in  its  deadly  silent  work. 

Three  months  later  the  long-delayed  in 
evitable  occurred.  The  collapse  came.  That 
under  such  conditions  it  should  have  been  so 
long  in  coming  is  now  the  only  legitimate 
cause  of  surprise.  That  adversity  is  the  test 
of  man  is  a  commonplace;  that  Lee  and  his 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia  were  during  the 
long,  dragging  winter  of  1864-5  most  direfully 
subjected  to  that  test  need  not  here  be  said; 
any  more  than  it  is  needful  to  say  that  they 
bore  the  test  manfully.  But  the  handwriting 


46  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

was  on  the  wall;  the  men  were  taxed  beyond 
the  limits  of  human  endurance.  And  Lee 
knew  it.  "  Yesterday,  the  most  inclement  day 
of  the  winter,"  he  reported  on  February  8, 
1865,  the  right  wing  of  his  army  "had  to  be 
retained  in  line  of  battle,  having  been  in  the 
same  condition  the  two  previous  days  and 
nights.  .  .  .  Under  these  circumstances, 
heightened  by  assaults  and  fire  of  the  enemy, 
some  of  the  men  had  been  without  meat  for 
three  days,  and  all  were  suffering  from  re 
duced  rations  and  scant  clothing,  exposed 
to  battle,  cold,  hail  and  sleet.  .  .  .  The 
physical  strength  of  the  men,  if  their  courage 
survives,  must  fail  under  this  treatment." 
If  it  was  so  with  the  men,  with  the  animals  it 
was  even  worse.  "Our  cavalry,"  he  added, 
"has  to  be  dispersed  for  want  of  forage." 
Even  thus  Lee's  army  faced  an  opponent 
vastly  superior  in  numbers,  whose  ranks  were 
being  constantly  replenished;  a  force  armed, 
clothed,  equipped,  fed  and  sheltered  as  no 
similar  force  in  the  world's  history  had  ever 
been  before.  I  state  only  indisputable  facts. 
Lee  proved  equal  to  even  this  occasion.  Bear 
ing  a  bold,  confident  front,  he  was  serene  and 
outwardly  calm ;  alert,  resourceful,  formidable 
to  the  last,  individually  he  showed  no  sign  of 
weakness,  not  even  occasional  petulance.  In 
spired  by  his  example,  the  whole  South  seemed 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  47 

to  lean  up  against  him  in  implicit,  loving  re 
liance.  It  was  a  superlative  tribute  to  Charac 
ter.  Finally,  when  in  April  the  summons  to 
conflict  came,  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
the  single  remaining  considerable  organized 
force  of  the  Confederacy,  seemed  to  stagger 
to  its  feet,  and,  gaunt  and  grim,  shivering 
with  cold  and  emaciated  with  hunger,  worn 
down  by  hard,  unceasing  attrition,  it  faced 
its  enemy,  formidable  still.  As  I  have  since 
studied  that  situation,  listened  to  the  ac 
counts  of  Confederate  officers  active  in  the 
closing  movements,  and  read  the  letters 
written  me  by  those  of  the  rank  and  file,  it 
has  seemed  as  if  Lee's  command  then  co 
hered  and  moved  by  mere  force  of  habit. 
Those  composing  it  failed  to  realize  the  utter 
hopelessness  of  the  situation  —  the  dispar 
ity  of  the  conflict,  I  am  sure  Jefferson  Davis 
failed  to  realize  it;  so,  I  think,  in  less  de 
gree,  did  Lee.  They  talked,  for  instance,  of 
recruits  and  of  a  levy  in  mass ;  Lee  counselled 
the  arming  of  the  slaves;  and  when,  after 
Lee  had  surrendered,  Davis  on  the  10th  of 
April,  1865,  held  his  last  war  conference  at 
Greensboro,  he  was  still  confident  he  would 
in  a  few  weeks  have  another  army  in  the  field, 
and  did  not  hesitate  to  express  his  faith  that 
"we  can  whip  the  enemy  yet,  if  our  people 
will  turn  out."  I  have  often  pondered  over 


48  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

what  Davis  had  in  mind  when  he  ventured 
this  opinion;  or  what  led  Lee  to  advocate  the 
enlistment  of  negroes.  Both  were  soldiers; 
and,  besides  being  great  in  his  profession, 
Lee  was  more  familiar  than  any  other  man 
alive  with  actual  conditions  then  existing 
in  the  Confederate  camps.  Both  Davis  and 
Lee,  therefore,  must  have  known  that,  in  those 
final  stages  of  the  conflict,  if  the  stamp  of  a 
foot  upon  the  ground  would  have  brought  a 
million  men  into  the  field,  the  cause  of  the 
Confederacy  would  thereby  have  been  in  no 
wise  strengthened;  on  the  contrary,  what  was 
already  bad  would  have  been  made  much 
worse.  For,  to  be  effective  in  warfare,  men 
must  be  fed  and  clothed  and  armed.  Organ 
ized  in  commands,  they  must  have  rations 
as  well  as  ammunition,  commissary  and  quar 
termaster  trains,  artillery  horses  and  forage. 
In  the  closing  months  of  the  Civil  War,  both 
Lee  and  Davis  knew  perfectly  well  that  they 
could  not  arm,  nor  feed,  nor  clothe,  nor 
transport  the  forces  already  in  the  field;  they 
were  themselves  without  money,  and  the 
soldiers  most  inadequately  supplied  with  arms, 
clothing,  quartermaster  or  medical  supplies, 
commissariat  or  ammunition.  Notoriously, 
those  then  on  the  muster-rolls  were  going 
home,  or  deserting  to  the  enemy,  as  the  one 
alternative  to  death  from  privation  —  hunger 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  49 

and  cold.  If  then,  a  million,  or  even  only  a 
poor  hundred  thousand  fresh  recruits  had 
in  answer  to  the  summons  swarmed  to  the 
lines  around  Richmond,  how  would  it  have 
bettered  the  situation?  An  organized  army 
is  a  mighty  consumer  of  food  and  material; 
and  food  and  material  have  to  be  served  out  to 
it  every  day.  It  must  be  fed  as  regularly  as 
the  sun  rises  and  sets.  And  the  organized 
resources  of  the  Confederacy  were  exhausted ; 
its  granaries  —  Georgia  and  the  valley  of  the 
Shenandoah  —  were  notoriously  devastated 
and  desolate;  its  lines  of  communication  and 
supply  were  cut,  or  in  the  hands  of  the  invader. 

Realizing  this,  when  the  time  was  ripe, 
Lee  rose  to  the  full  height  of  the  great  occa 
sion.  The  value  of  Character  made  itself  felt. 
The  service  Lee  now  rendered  to  the  common 
country,  the  obligation  under  which  he  placed 
us  whether  of  the  North  or  South,  has  not,  I 
think,  been  always  appreciated;  and  to  over 
state  it  would  be  difficult.  Again  to  put  on  re 
cord  my  estimate  of  it  brings  me  here  to-day. 

That  the  situation  was  to  the  last  degree 
critical  is  matter  of  history.  Further  organ 
ized  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Confeder 
acy  was  impossible.  The  means  for  it  did 
not  exist;  could  not  be  had.  Cut  off  com 
pletely  from  the  outer  world,  the  South  was 
consuming  itself,  —  feeding  on  its  own  vitals. 


50  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

The  single  alternative  to  surrender  was  dis- 
bandment  and  irregular  warfare.  As  General 
Johnston  afterwards  wrote,  "without  the 
means  of  purchasing  supplies  of  any  kind,  or 
procuring  or  repairing  arms,  we  could  con 
tinue  the  war  only  as  robbers  or  guerrillas." 
But  that  it  should  be  so  continued  was  wholly 
possible;  nay  more,  it  was  in  the  line  of 
precedent,  —  it  had  been  done  before,  and, 
more  than  once,  it  has  since  been  done, 
notably  in  South  Africa.  It  was,  moreover, 
the  course  advocated  by  many  southern 
participants  in  the  struggle  as  that  proper 
to  be  pursued;  and  that  it  would  be  pursued 
was  accepted  as  of  course  by  all  foreign  ob 
servers,  and  by  the  organ  of  the  Confederacy 
in  London.  "A  strenuous  resistance  and  not 
surrender,"  it  was  there  declared,  "was  the 
unalterable  determination  of  the  Confeder 
ate  authorities."  Lee's  own  son,  then  in  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  but  by  chance 
not  included  in  the  surrender,  has  since  de 
scribed  how  surprised  and  incredulous  he  was 
when  news  of  it  first  reached  him;  and,  "not 
believing  for  an  instant  that  our  struggle 
was  over,"  he  made  his  way  at  once  to  Jeffer 
son  Davis,  at  Greensboro.  At  the  time  of  his 
capture  Davis  himself,  wholly  unsubdued  in 
spirit,  was  moving  in  the  direction  of  the 
Mississippi  intent  on  organizing  resistance  in 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  51 

Texas,  —  a  resistance  which  the  writers  of  the 
Index  confidently  predicted  would  "be  fierce, 
ferocious  and  of  long  duration,"  "a  suc 
cessful  or  at  least  a  protracted  resistance." 

Indeed,  had  the  veil  over  the  immediate 
future  then  been  lifted,  and  the  outrages,  and 
humiliations  worse  than  outrage,  of  the  period 
of  so-called  reconstruction,  but  actual  servile 
domination,  now  to  ensue  revealed  itself,  no 
room  for  doubt  exists  that  the  dread  alter 
native  would  have  been  adopted.  Even  as 
it  was,  the  scales  hung  trembling.  Anything 
or  everything  was  possible;  even  that  mad 
pistol  shot  of  the  theatrical  fool  which  five 
days  later  so  irretrievably  complicated  a 
delicate  and  dangerous  situation.  None  the 
less,  what  Lee  and  Grant  had  done  at  Appo- 
mattox  on  April  9  could  not  be  wholly  un 
done  even  by  the  deed  in  Ford's  theatre  of 
April  14;  much  had  been  secured.  Of  Ap- 
pomattox,  and  what  there  occurred,  I  do  not 
care  here  to  speak.  I  feel  I  could  not  speak 
adequately,  or  in  words  sufficiently  simple; 
for,  in  my  judgment,  there  is  not  in  our 
whole  history  as  a  people  any  incident  so 
creditable  to  our  manhood,  —  so  indicative 
of  our  racial  possession  of  Character.  Marked 
throughout  by  a  straightforward  dignity  of 
personal  bearing  and  propriety  in  action, 
it  was  marred  by  no  touch  of  the  theatrical, 


52  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

no  effort  at  posturing.  I  know  not  to  which  of 
the  two  leaders,  there  face  to  face,  preference 
should  be  given.  They  were  thoroughly  typi 
cal,  the  one  of  Illinois  and  the  New  West, 
the  other  of  Virginia  and  the  Old  Dominion. 
Grant  was  considerate  and  magnanimous,  - 
restrained  in  victory;  Lee,  dignified  in  de 
feat,  carried  himself  with  that  sense  of  ab 
solute  fitness  which  compelled  respect.  Ver 
ily!  —  "he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  is  better  than 
he  that  taketh  a  city"! 

The  lead  that  day  given  by  Lee  proved  de 
cisive  of  the  course  to  be  pursued  by  his  fel 
lows  with  arms  in  their  hands.  At  first,  and 
for  a  brief  space,  there  was  in  the  Confed 
erate  councils  much  diversity  of  opinion  as 
to  what  should  or  could  be  done.  Calm  and 
dignified  in  presence  of  overwhelming  dis 
aster,  the  voice  of  Jefferson  Davis  was  that 
of  Milton's  "scepter'd  king:" — "My  sen 
tence  is  for  open  war!"  Lee  was  not  there; 
none  the  less,  Lee,  absent,  prevailed  over 
Davis.  The  sober  second  thought  satisfied 
all  but  the  most  extreme  that  what  he  had 
done  they  best  might  do.  Thus  the  die  was 
cast.  And  now,  forty  years  and  more  after 
the  event,  it  is  appalling  to  reflect  what  in  all 
human  probability  would  have  resulted  had 
the  choice  then  been  other  than  it  was,  —  had 
Lee's  personality  and  character  not  intervened. 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  53 

The  struggle  had  lasted  four  full  years;  the 
assassination  of  Lincoln  was  as  oil  on  the 
Union  fire.  With  a  million  men,  inured  to  war, 
on  the  national  muster  rolls,  men  impatient 
of  further  resistance,  accustomed  to  license 
and  now  educated  up  to  a  belief  that  war 
was  Hell,  and  that  the  best  way  to  bring  it 
to  a  close  was  to  intensify  Hell,  —  with  such 
a  force  as  this  to  reckon  with,  made  more 
reckless  in  brutality  by  the  assassin's  sense 
less  shot,  the  Confederacy  need  have  looked 
for  no  consideration,  no  mercy.  Visited  by 
the  besom  of  destruction,  it  would  have  been 
harried  out  of  existence.  Fire  and  sword 
sweeping  over  it,  what  the  sword  spared  the 
fire  would  have  consumed.  Whether  such 
an  outcome  of  a  prolonged  conflict  —  what 
was  recently  witnessed  in  South  Africa  — 
would  in  its  result  have  been  more  morally 
injurious  to  the  North  than  it  would  have 
been  physically  destructive  to  the  South, 
is  not  now  to  be  considered.  It  would,  how 
ever,  assuredly  have  come  about. 

From  that  crown  of  sorrows  Lee  saved  the  6^ 
common  country.  He  was  the  one  man  in  the 
Confederacy  who  could  exercise  decisive  in 
fluence.  It  was  the  night  of  the  8th  of  April, 
lacking  ten  days  only  of  exactly  four  full  years, 
—  years  very  full  for  us  who  lived  through 
them  —  since  that  not  dissimilar  night  when 


54  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

Lee  had  paced  the  floor  at  Arlington,  com 
muning  with  himself  over  the  fateful  issue,  a 
decision  on  which  was  then  forced  upon  him. 
A  decision  of  even  greater  import  was  now  to 
be  reached,  and  reached  by  him.  A  com 
mander  of  the  usual  cast  would  under  such 
circumstances  have  sought  advice  —  perhaps 
support;  at  least,  a  divided  responsibility. 
Even  though  himself  by  nature  and  habit  a 
masterful  man  and  one  accustomed  to  direct, 
he  would  have  called  a  council,  and  barkened 
to  those  composing  it.  This  Lee  did  not  do. 
A  singularly  self-poised  man,  he  sought  no 
external  aid.  Sitting  before  his  bivouac  fire 
at  Appomattox  he  reviewed  the  situation. 
Doing  so,  as  before  at  Arlington,  he  reached 
his  own  conclusion.  That  conclusion  he  him 
self  at  the  time  expressed  in  words,  brief,  in 
deed,  but  vibrating  with  moral  triumph:  — 
;<The  question  is,  is  it  right  to  surrender  this 
army?  If  it  is  right,  then  I  will  take  all  the 
responsibility."  The  conclusion  reached  at 
Arlington  in  the  April  night  of  1861  to  some 
seems  to  have  been  wrong —  inexcusable  even; 
all  concur  in  that  reached  before  the  Appo 
mattox  camp-fire  in  the  April  vigils  of  1865. 
He  then  a  second  time  decided;  and  he  de 
cided  right. 

His  work  was  done;    but  from  failure  he 
plucked   triumph.      Thenceforth   Lee    wore 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  55 

defeat  as  't  were  a  laurel  crown.  A  few  days 
later  a  small  group  of  horsemen  appeared 
in  the  morning  hours  on  the  further  side  of 
the  Richmond  pontoons  across  the  James. 
By  some  strange  intuition  it  became  known 
that  General  Lee  was  of  the  party;  and, 
silent  and  uncovered,  a  crowd  —  Virginians 
all  —  gathered  along  the  route  the  horsemen 
would  take.  "There  was  no  excitement,  no 
hurrahing;  but  as  the  great  chief  passed, 
a  deep,  loving  murmur,  greater  than  these, 
rose  from  the  very  hearts  of  the  crowd. 
Taking  off  his  hat,  and  simply  bowing  his 
head,  the  man  great  in  adversity  passed  si 
lently  to  his  own  door;  it  closed  upon  him; 
and  his  people  had  seen  him  for  the  last  time 
in  his  battle  harness." 

From  the  day  that  he  affixed  his  signature 
to  the  terms  of  surrender  submitted  to  him  by 
Grant  at  Appomattox  to  the  day  when  he  drew 
a  dying  breath  at  Lexington,  Lee's  subsequent 
course  was  consistent.  In  his  case  there  was 
no  vacillation,  no  regretful  glances  backward 
thrown.  When,  four  months  after  the  last  hos 
tile  shot  was  fired,  he  was  invited  to  assume 
the  presidency  of  this  college,  though  then 
under  indictment,  in  flagrant  disregard  of  the 
immunity  assured  him  when  he  gave  his  pa 
role,  he  briefly  set  forth  his  views.  "I  think 
it,"  he  wrote,  "  the  duty  of  every  citizen,  in  the 


56  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

present  condition  of  the  country,  to  do  all  in 
his  power  to  aid  in  the  restoration  of  peace  and 
harmony,  and  in  no  way  to  oppose  the  policy 
of  the  State  or  General  Governments  directed 
to  that  object."  And,  four  days  later,  writ 
ing  to  the  Confederate  Governor  of  Virginia, 
he  said  —  "The  duty  of  [Virginian]  citizens 
appears  to  me  too  plain  to  admit  of  doubt.  All 
should  unite  in  honest  efforts  to  obliterate  the 
effects  of  war,  and  to  restore  the  blessings  of 
peace.  They  should  remain  if  possible  in  the 
country;  promote  harmony  and  good  feeling; 
qualify  themselves  to  vote,  and  elect  to  the 
State  and  general  legislatures  wise  and  patri 
otic  men,  who  will  devote  their  abilities  to  the 
healing  of  all  dissensions.  I  have,"  he  added, 
"invariably  recommended  this  course  since 
the  cessation  of  hostilities,  and  have  en 
deavored  to  practice  it  myself."  Here  was  a 
complete  exposition  of  duty,  combined  with 
abnegation  of  self;  the  purest  patriotism,  it 
was  also  the  concentrated  essence  of  states 
manship.  He  counselled  with  a  wisdom  not 
less  profound  because  unconscious ;  and  what 
he  said  evinced  that  underlying  common  sense 
which  in  politics  avails  more  than  genius. 

Five  years  of  life  and  active  usefulness  yet 
remained  to  General  Lee  —  years  in  my  judg 
ment  most  creditable  to  himself,  the  most  use 
ful  to  his  country  of  his  whole  life;  for,  during 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  57 

them,  he  set  to  Virginia  and  his  own  people  a 
high  example,  —  an  example  of  lofty  charac 
ter  and  simple  bearing.  Uttering  no  com 
plaints,  entering  into  no  controversies,  he  was 
as  one,  in  suffering  all,  that  suffers  nothing. 
His  blood  and  judgment  were  well  commin 
gled;  and  so  it  fell  out  that  he  accepted  for 
tune's  buffets  and  rewards  with  equal  thanks. 
His  record  and  appearance  during  those  final 
years  are  pleasant  to  dwell  upon,  for  they 
reflect  honor  on  our  American  manhood. 
Turning  his  face  courageously  to  the  future, 
he  uttered  no  word  of  repining  over  the  past. 
Yet,  like  the  noble  Moor,  his  occupation  also 
was  gone  — 

"  The  royal  banner,  and  all  quality, 
Pride,  pomp  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war! " 

But  with  Lee  this  did  not  imply 

"  Farewell  the  tranquil  mind!  farewell  content!  " 

Far  from  it;  for  as  the  gates  closed  on  the  old 
occupation,  they  opened  on  a  new.  And  it  was 
an  occupation  through  which  he  gave  to  his 
country,  North  and  South,  a  priceless  gift. 

Speaking  advisedly  and  on  full  reflection,  I 
say  that  of  all  the  great  characters  of  the  Civil 
War,  and  it  was  productive  of  many  whose 
names  and  deeds  posterity  will  long  bear  in 
recollection,  there  was  not  one  who  passed 
away  in  the  serene  atmosphere  and  with  the 


58  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

gracious  bearing  of  Lee.  From  beginning  to 
end  those  parting  years  of  his  will  bear  closest 
scrutiny.  There  was  about  them  nothing 
venal,  nothing  querulous,  nothing  in  any  way 
sordid  or  disappointing.  In  his  case  there  was 
no  anti-climax;  for  those  closing  years  were 
dignified,  patient,  useful;  sweet  in  domes 
ticity,  they  in  all  things  commanded  respect. 
It  is  pleasant  to  catch  glimpses  of  the  erst 
while  commander  in  that  quiet  Virginia  life. 
There  is  in  the  picture  something  altogether 
human — intensely  sympathetic.  "Traveller," 
he  would  write,  "is  my  only  companion;  I 
may  also  say  my  pleasure.  He  and  I,  when 
ever  practicable,  wander  out  in  the  mountains 
and  enjoy  sweet  confidence."  Or  again  we 
see  him,  always  with  Traveller,  the  famous 
old  charger  this  time  "stepping  very  proudly," 
as  his  rider  showed  those  two  little  sunbon- 
neted  daughters  of  a  professor,  astride  of  a 
plodding  old  horse,  over  a  pleasant  road,  quite 
unknown  to  them.  Once  more  in  imagina 
tion  we  may  ride,  his  companions,  through 
those  mountain  roads  of  his  dearly  loved  Vir 
ginia,  or  seek  shelter  with  him  and  his  daugh 
ter  from  a  thunder-shower  in  the  log  cabin, 
the  inmates  of  which  are  stunned  when  too  late 
they  realize  that  the  courtly,  gracious  intruder 
was  no  other  than  the  idolized  General  Lee. 
Indifferent  to  wealth,  he  was  scrupulous  as 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  59 

respects  those  money  dealings  a  carelessness 
in  regard  to  which  has  embittered  the  lives 
of  so  many  of  our  public  men,  as  not  infre 
quently  it  has  tarnished  their  fame.  Lee's 
career  will  be  scrutinized  in  vain  for  a  sug 
gestion  even  of  the  sordid,  or  of  an  obligation 
he  failed  to  meet.  He  was  nothing  if  not  self- 
respecting.  He  once  wrote  to  a  member  of  his 
family  "'vile  dross'  has  never  been  a  drug 
with  me,"  yet  his  generosity  as  a  giver  from 
his  narrow  means  was  limited  only  by  his 
resources.  Restricting  his  own  wants  to  ne 
cessities,  he  contributed,  to  an  extent  which 
excites  surprise,  to  both  public  calls  and  pri 
vate  needs.  But  the  most  priceless  of  those 
contributions  were  contained  in  the  precepts 
he  inculcated  and  in  the  unconscious  example 
he  set  during  those  closing  years. 

Lee  was  at  the  head  of  Washington  College 
from  October,  1865,  to  October,  1870;  a  very 
insufficient  time  in  which  to  accomplish  any 
considerable  work.  A  man  of  fast  advancing 
years,  he  also  then  had  sufficient  cause  to  feel 
a  sense  of  lassitude.  He  showed  no  signs  of 
it.  On  the  contrary,  closely  studied,  those 
years,  and  Lee's  bearing  in  them,  were  in  cer 
tain  respects  the  most  remarkable  as  well  as 
the  most  creditable  of  his  life;  they  impressed 
unmistakably  upon  it  the  stamp  of  true  great 
ness.  Unable  to  pass  them  wholly  over,  I  shall 


60  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

deal  very  briefly  with  them.  His  own  means 
of  subsistence  having  been  swept  away  by 
war,  —  the  property  of  his  wrife  as  well  as  his 
own  having  been  sequestered  and  confiscated 
in  utter  disregard  not  only  of  law,  but  —  I 
add  it  regretfully  —  of  decency,  —  a  mere 
pittance,  designated  in  courtesy  "salary," 
under  his  prudent  management  w^as  made  to 
suffice  for  the  needs  of  an  establishment  the 
quiet  dignity  of  which  even  exceeded  its  severe 
simplicity.  Within  five  months  of  the  down 
fall  of  the  Confederacy,  he  addressed  himself 
to  his  new  vocation.  Coming  to  it  from  crush 
ing  defeat,  about  him  there  was  nothing  sug 
gestive  of  disappointment;  and  thereafter 
through  public  trials  and  private  misfortunes 
-  for  it  pleased  Heaven  to  try  him  with  afflic 
tions  —  he  bore  himself  with  serene  patience, 
and  a  mingled  firmness  and  sweetness  of  tem 
per  to  which  mere  words  fail  to  do  justice. 
More  than  that,  becoming  interested  in  his 
new  work,  he  evinced,  it  would  seem,  as  the 
head  of  a  college  a  grasp  of  educational  prob 
lems  not  less  clear  and  intelligent  than  he  had 
previously  shown  of  strategic  conditions.  It 
was  indeed  extraordinary  that  a  man  edu 
cated  in  a  military  school,  first  an  engineer, 
then  an  officer  of  cavalry,  and  finally  a  general 
in  charge  of  large  field  operations,  should, 
when  approaching  his  sixtieth  year,  have 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  61 

given  proof  of  such  mental  activity  and 
freshness.  Fully  realizing  the  needs  and 
requirements  of  the  present  age,  the  former 
commandant  of  West  Point  was  the  ardent 
advocate  of  complete  classical  and  literary 
culture.  Utterly  out  of  sympathy  with  the  mod 
ern  advocates  of  materialistic  education,  he 
yet  recognized  the  fact  that  material  well-being 
is,  for  a  people,  the  condition  of  all  high  civili 
zation;  and,  accordingly,  sought  to  provide,  in 
the  institution  of  which  he  was  the  head,  all 
means  for  the  development  of  science,  and  its 
practical  application.  With  a  large  and  cor 
rect  conception  he  planned,  therefore,  to 
connect  all  the  departments  of  literary,  scien 
tific,  and  professional  education,  and  to  con 
solidate  them  under  a  common  organization. 
He  thus  outlined  a  true  university.  So,  at  an 
early  day  he  called  into  existence,  as  adjuncts 
of  the  college  he  found  prostrate  and  well-nigh 
moribund,  schools  of  Applied  Mathematics, 
of •  Engineering  and  of  Law;  while  later  he 
submitted  to  its  Board  of  Trustees  a  matured 
scheme  for  the  complete  development  of  the 
scientific  and  professional  departments.  His 
death,  just  before  he  had  yet  reached  the 
grand  climacteric,  prevented  the  full  develop 
ment  of  his  great  conception.  None  the  less, 
he  had  shown  himself  fully  equal  to  the  new 
demand  upon  him. 


62  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

The  most  marked  feature  of  his  educational 
career  was,  however,  the  moral  influence  he 
exerted  on  the  student  body,  —  what  has  most 
fitly  been  described  by  one  associated  with  him 
as  "the  mighty  influence  of  his  personal  char 
acter."  Here,  as  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Vir 
ginia,  this  was  all-powerful.  It  was  sorely 
needed,  too;  for  the  young  men  of  the  South 
were  wild,  and  resented  efforts  at  restraint. 
Grown  up  in  an  environment  of  warfare  and 
consequent  violence,  they  were  somewhat  dis 
posed  to  take  matters  into  their  own  hands,  — 
to  be,  in  a  word,  a  law  unto  themselves;  but, 
under  Lee's  presidency,  the  elevation  of  tone 
in  this  respect,  and  the  consequent  improve 
ment  in  student  conduct  were,  we  are  on  good 
evidence  assured,  marked  and  rapid.  Acts  of 
disorder  became  infrequent;  and  in  the  latter 
years  of  Lee's  brief  administration  it  is  said 
that  "hardly  a  single  case  of  serious  discipline 
occurred."  A  Boston  student  of  Washington 
College  in  those  years  —  sent  there  because 
of  the  feelings  of  profound  respect  for  Lee  en 
tertained  by  his  Northern  father  —  has  since 
borne  witness  to  me  of  the  personal  interest 
taken  by  Washington's  president  in  the  indi 
vidual  students.  In  close  sympathy  with  the 
modern  university  spirit,  the  youth  in  ques 
tion  was,  I  have  reason  to  suppose,  far  more 
addicted  to  athletics  than  to  his  text-books. 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  63 

"This  lack  of  proficiency  in  my  studies,"  he 
has  recently  written  me,  "was,  of  course,  a 
matter  for  which  I  was  frequently  called  into 
the  presence  of  General  Lee;  and  I  fully 
appreciate  now,  though  I  did  not  then,  the 
difficulties  under  which  he  labored;  for,  if  he 
had  expelled  me,  as  under  similar  circum 
stances  he  undoubtedly  would  have  expelled 
any  Southern  student,  it  would  have  been 
considered  a  factional  matter.  He  would 
plead  most  earnestly  with  me  always  that  I 
should  attend  more  to  my  studies  and  less  to 
athletics,  and  never  a  harsh  word  during  the 
entire  period." 

It  remains  to  assign  due  weight  and  value 
to  these  precepts  and  this  great  example  at 
just  that  juncture  and  from  just  that  man. 
And  here,  bearing  in  mind  the  common  coun 
try,  —  the  community  to  which  I  belong  as 
well  as  that  I  now  address,  —  I  feel  I  tread  on 
dangerous  ground.  What  I  must  necessarily 
say  will  be  very  susceptible  of  misconstruc 
tion.  Speaking,  however,  in  the  true  historical 
spirit,  as  throughout  I  have  sought  to  do,  I 
must  deal  with  this  topic  also  as  best  I  can. 

Because  no  blood  flowed  on  the  scaffold, 
and  no  confiscations  of  houses  or  lands 
marked  the  close  of  our  war  of  Secession, 
it  has  always  been  assumed  by  us  of  the  vic 
torious  party  that  extreme,  indeed  unprece- 


64  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

dented,  clemency  was  shown  to  the  van 
quished,  and  that  subsequently  they  had  no 
good  ground  of  complaint  or  sufficient  cause 
for  restiveness.  That  history  will  accord 
assent  to  this  somewhat  self-complacent  con 
viction  is  open  to  question.  On  the  contrary, 
it  may  not  unfairly  be  doubted  whether  a 
people  prostrate  after  civil  strife  has  often 
received  severer  measure  than  was  inflicted 
on  the  so-called  reconstructed  Confederate 
States  during  the  years  immediately  succeed 
ing  the  close  of  strife.  Adam  Smith  somewhere 
defined  Rebels  and  Heretics  as  "those  un 
lucky  persons  who,  when  things  have  come 
to  a  certain  degree  of  violence,  have  the  mis 
fortune  to  be  of  the  weaker  party."  Spolia 
tion  and  physical  suffering  have  immemo- 
rially  been  their  lot.  The  Confederate,  it  is 
true,  when  he  ceased  to  resist,  escaped  this 
visitation  in  its  usual  and  time-approved 
form.  Nevertheless,  he  was  by  no  means  ex 
empt  from  it.  In  the  matter  of  confiscation, 
it  has  been  computed  that  the  freeing  of  the 
slaves  by  act  of  war  swept  out  of  existence 
property  valued  at  some  two  thousand  mil 
lions;  while,  over  and  above  this,  a  system 
of  simultaneous  reconstruction  subjected  the 
disfranchised  master  to  the  rule  of  the  en 
franchised  bondsman.  For  a  community 
conspicuously  masterful,  and  notoriously 


LEE'S   CENTENNIAL  65 

quick  to  resent  affront,  to  be  thus  placed  by 
alien  force  under  the  civil  rule  of  those  of  a 
different  and  distinctly  inferior  race,  only 
lately  their  property,  is  not  physical  torment, 
it  is  true,  but  that  it  is  mild  or  considerate 
treatment  can  hardly  be  contended.  Yet  this 
—  slave  confiscation,  and  reconstruction  under 
African  rule  —  was  the  war  penalty  imposed 
on  the  States  of  the  Confederacy.  That  the 
policy  inspired  at  the  time  a  feeling  of  bitter 
resentment  in  the  South  was  no  cause  for 
wonder.  Upon  it  time  has  already  recorded 
a  verdict.  Following  the  high  precedent  set 
at  Appomattox  it  was  distinctly  unworthy. 
Conceived  in  passion,  it  ignored  both  science 
and  the  philosophy  of  statesmanship;  worse 
yet,  it  was  ungenerous.  Lee,  for  instance, 
again  setting  the  example,  applied  formally 
for  amnesty  and  a  restoration  of  civil  rights 
within  two  months  of  his  surrender.  His  ap 
plication  was  silently  ignored;  while  he  died 
"a  prisoner  on  parole,"  the  suffrage  denied 
him  was  conferred  on  his  manumitted  slaves. 
Verily,  it  was  not  alone  the  base  Indian  of 
the  olden  time  who  "threw  a  pearl  away 
richer  than  all  his  tribe"! 

But  on  such  a  rejection  and  choice  of  ma 
terial  as  this  was  the  so-called  reconstruction 
edifice  based;  nor  is  it  matter  for  wonder  that 
it  speedily  crumbled  away.  It  was  under 


66  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

these  conditions  that  Lee's  bearing  and  ex 
ample  were  of  special  national  importance. 
The  one  political  result  the  States  of  the  Con 
federacy  should  ever  have  kept  steadily  in 
view  after  strife  closed  was  the  restoration 
of  local  self-government;  and  that,  under 
the  traditions  and  political  instincts  of  the 
American  community,  was  sure  to  come.  It 
was  only  a  question  of  time;  and  patience 
and  self-restraint  were  the  two  qualities  most 
sure  to  hasten  the  steps  of  time.  "We  shall 
have  to  be  patient,"  Lee  in  March,  1866, 
wrote  to  old  companions  in  arms,  "and 
suffer  for  a  while  at  least;  ...  I  hope,  in 
time,  peace  will  be  restored  to  the  country, 
and  that  the  South  may  enjoy  some  measure 
of  prosperity.  I  fear,  however,  much  suffer 
ing  is  still  in  store  for  her,  and  that  her  people 
must  be  prepared  to  exercise  fortitude  and 
forbearance."  To  those  to  whom  it  was 
addressed,  no  wiser  or  more  tactful  counsel 
could  at  that  juncture  (March,  1866)  have 
been  imparted;  for,  while  Lee  himself  pos 
sessed  those  virtues  to  a  well-nigh  unexampled 
degree,  patience  and  self-restraint  have  not 
been  generally  accepted  as  most  conspicuous 
among  the  many  manly  and  ennobling  quali 
ties  of  the  race  to  which  Lee  belonged. 

In  the  passage  with  which  I  began,  it  was 
observed   by  Emerson  that   "Character  de- 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  67 

notes  habitual  self-possession,  habitual  re 
gard  to  interior  and  constitutional  motives, 
a  balance  not  to  be  overset  or  easily  disturbed 
by  outward  events  and  opinion."  To  my 
knowledge  I  never  saw  General  Lee  ;  I  cer 
tainly  never  stood  in  his  presence,  nor  ex 
changed  a  word  with  him.  On  the  few  oc 
casions  when  I  was  a  guest  in  his  house, 
he  chanced  to  be  absent.  Even  that  was  long 
ago;  while  he  and  his  family  still  lived  at 
Arlington.  Thus  I  know  him  only  by  report, 
and  through  his  letters.  But,  if  the  report  of 
those  who  did  know  him  well,  and  the  evi 
dence  of  what  he  wrote,  may  be  relied  on, 
"habitual  self-possession,  habitual  regard  to 
interior  and  constitutional  motives,  a  balance 
not  to  be  overset  or  easily  disturbed  by  out 
ward  events  and  opinion,"  were  his  to  an 
eminent  degree,  —  a  degree  which  his  harsh 
est  and  most  prejudiced  critic  could  not  ig 
nore.  That,  himself  a  devout  man  and  by 
conviction  sincerely^  rjli^ious,  he  was  neither 
ashamed  nor  afraid  so  publicly  to  profess 
himself,  may  be  read  in  his  repeated  army 
orders;  or,  to  such  as  prefer  there  to  look  for 
it,  in  his  family  letters.  What  more  expres 
sive  of  a  profound  religious  faith  could  be 
imagined  than  these  words  written  in  the 
very  shadow  of  Gettysburg's  disaster  to  the 
dying  wife  of  his  wounded  and  captured  son  ? 


68  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

—  "In  his  own  good  time  He  will  relieve  us, 
and  make  all  things  work  together  for  our 
good,  if  we  give  Him  our  love  and  place  in 
Him  our  trust."  That  his  immediate  family 
circle  regarded  him  with  the  affectionate  devo 
tion  founded  on  respect  which  is  the  surest 
indication  of  those  sterling  and  fundamental 
qualities  which  alone  can  cause  a  man  to 
seem  a  hero  to  those  near  to  him,  —  the  con 
fidants  of  his  privacy,  —  appears  from  those 
family  letters  and  recollections  which  have 
been  so  freely  published.  That  he  impressed 
himself  on  those  about  him  in  his  professional 
and  public  life  to  an  uncommon  extent,  - 
that  the  soldiers  of  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia  as  well  as  those  of  his  staff  and  in 
high  command  felt  not  only  implicit  and  un 
questioning  confidence  in  him  but  to  him 
a  strong  personal  affection,  is  established  by 
their  concurrent  testimony.  He,  too,  might 
well  have  said  with  Brutus :  — 

"  My  heart  doth  joy  that  yet  in  all  my  life 
I  found  no  man  but  he  was  true  to  me. 
I  shall  have  glory  by  this  losing  day." 

Finally,  one  who  knew  him  well  has  written 
of  him  —  "He  had  the  quiet  bearing  of  a 
powerful  yet  harmonious  nature.  An  un 
ruffled  calm  upon  his  countenance  betokened 
the  concentration  and  control  of  the  whole 
being  within.  He  was  a  kingly  man  whom 


LEE'S  CENTENNIAL  69 

all  men  who  came  into  his  presence  expected 
to  obey."  That  he  was  gifted  in  a  prominent 
degree  with  the  mens  aequa  in  arduis  of  the 
Roman  poet,  none  deny. 

And  now,  Virginians,  a  word  with  you  in 
closing:  "Show  me  the  man  you  honor; 
I  know  by  that  symptom,  better  than  by  any 
other,  what  kind  of  man  you  yourself  are. 
For  you  show  me  then  what  your  ideal  of 
manhood  is;  what  kind  of  man  you  long 
possibly  to  be,  and  would  thank  the  Gods, 
with  your  whole  soul,  for  being  if  you  could. 
Whom  shall  we  consecrate  and  set  apart  as 
one  of  our  sacred  men?  Sacred;  that  all 
men  may  see  him,  be  reminded  of  him,  and, 
by  new  example  added  to  old  perpetual 
precept,  be  taught  what  is  real  worth  in  man. 
Whom  do  you  wish  to  resemble  ?  Him  you 
set  on  a  high  column,  that  all  men  looking 
at  it,  may  be  continually  apprised  of  the  duty 
you  expect  from  them." 

"The  virtues  of  a  superior  man  are  like 
the  wind;  the  virtues  of  a  common  man  are 
like  the  grass;  the  grass,  when  the  wind 
passes  over  it,  bends." 


APPENDIX 

(Page  10) 

IN  regard  to  the  early  utterances  of  Mr.  Webster,  the 
following  is  from  a  speech  by  him  in  the  National 
House  of  Representatives,  December  9, 1814.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  this  speech  was  delivered  in 
the  midst  of  the  gloomiest  period  of  the  War  of  1812- 
15,  four  months  after  the  battle  of  Bladensburg  and 
the  capture  of  Washington,  and  one  month  before  the 
British  were  defeated  below  New  Orleans.  The  speech 
was  first  published  (1902)  by  C.  H.  Van  Tyne,  in  his 
edition  of  the  Letters  of  Daniel  Webster  (p.  67). 

"In  my  opinion  [the  law  under  consideration  for 
compulsory  army  and  military  service]  ought  not  to  be 
carried  into  effect.  The  operation  of  measures  thus 
unconstitutional  and  illegal  ought  to  be  prevented,  by 
a  resort  to  other  measures  which  are  both  constitu 
tional  and  legal.  It  will  be  the  solemn  duty  of  the  State 
Governments  to  protect  their  own  authority  over  their 
own  Militia,  and  to  interpose  between  their  citizens  and 
arbitrary  power.  These  are  among  the  objects  for  which 
the  State  Governments  exist;  and  their  highest  obli 
gations  bind  them  to  the  preservation  of  their  own 
rights  and  the  liberties  of  their  people.  I  express  these 
sentiments  here,  Sir,  because  I  shall  express  them  to 
my  constituents.  Both  they  and  myself  live  under  a 
Constitution  which  teaches  us,  that  'the  doctrine  of 
non-resistance  against  arbitrary  power  and  oppression 
is  absurd,  slavish,  and  destructive  of  the  good  and 


72  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

happiness  of  mankind.'  With  the  same  earnestness 
with  which  I  now  exhort  you  to  forbear  from  these 
measures,  I  shall  exhort  them  to  exercise  their  unques 
tionable  right  of  providing  for  the  security  of  their  own 
liberties." 

William  Rawle  was  in  his  day  an  eminent  Philadel 
phia  lawyer,  and  Chancellor  of  the  Law  Association  of 
Philadelphia.  The  principal  author  of  the  revised  code 
of  Pennsylvania,  he  stood  in  the  foremost  rank  of 
American  legal  luminaries  in  the  first  third  of  the  nine 
teenth  century.  His  instincts,  sympathies,  and  connec 
tions  were  all  national.  His  View  of  the  Constitution, 
published  in  Philadelphia  in  1825,  was  the  standard 
text-book  on  the  subject  until  the  publication  of 
Story's  Commentaries,  in  1833.  It  has  been  asserted 
that  Rawle's  View  was  used  as  a  text-book  for  the 
instruction  of  the  students  at  West  Point  until  after  the 
year  1840.  (See  prefatory  matter  to  republication  of 
paper  entitled  Sectional  Misunderstandings,  by  Robert 
Bingham,  in  North  American  Review  of  September, 
1904.) 

"If  a  faction  should  attempt  to  subvert  the  govern 
ment  of  a  State  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  its  re 
publican  form,  the  paternal  power  of  the  Union  could 
thus  be  called  forth  to  subdue  it.  Yet  it  is  not  to  be 
understood  that  its  interposition  would  be  justifiable 
if  the  people  of  a  State  should  determine  to  retire  from 
the  Union,  whether  they  adopted  another  or  retained 
the  same  form  of  government.  (Page  289.)  .  .  . 

"The  States,  then,  may  wholly  withdraw  from  the 
Union;  but  while  they  continue  they  must  retain  the 
character  of  representative  republics."  (Page  290.) 

"The  secession  of  a  State  from  the  Union  depends 


APPENDIX  73 

on  the  will  of  the  people  of  such  State.  The  people 
alone,  as  we  have  already  seen,  hold  the  power  to  alter 
their  constitution.  The  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  incorporated  into  the  con 
stitutions  of  the  several  States  by  the  act  of  the  people. 
The  State  legislatures  have  only  to  perform  certain 
organical  operations  in  respect  to  it.  To  withdraw 
from  the  Union  comes  not  within  the  general  scope  of 
their  delegated  authority.  There  must  be  an  express 
provision  to  that  effect  inserted  in  the  State  constitu 
tions.  This  is  not  at  present  the  case  with  any  of  them, 
and  it  would  perhaps  be  impolitic  to  confide  it  to  them. 
A  matter  so  momentous  ought  not  to  be  entrusted  to 
those  who  would  have  it  in  their  power  to  exercise  it 
lightly  and  precipitately  upon  sudden  dissatisfaction, 
or  causeless  jealousy,  perhaps  against  the  interests  and 
the  wishes  of  a  majority  of  their  constituents. 

"But  in  any  manner  by  which  a  secession  is  to  take 
place,  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  act  should 
be  deliberate,  clear,  and  unequivocal.  The  perspicuity 
and  solemnity  of  the  original  obligation  require  cor 
respondent  qualities  in  its  dissolution.  The  powers  of 
the  general  government  cannot  be  defeated  or  im 
paired  by  an  ambiguous  or  implied  secession  on  the 
part  of  the  State,  although  a  secession  may  perhaps  be 
conditional.  The  people  of  the  State  may  have  some 
reasons  to  complain  in  respect  to  acts  of  the  general 
government;  they  may  in  such  cases  invest  some  of 
their  own  officers  with  the  power  of  negotiation,  and 
may  declare  an  absolute  secession  in  case  of  their  fail 
ure.  Still,  however,  the  secession  must  in  such  case  be 
distinctly  and  peremptorily  declared  to  take  place  on 
that  event;  and  in  such  case,  as  in  the  case  of  an  un 
conditional  secession,  the  previous  ligament  with  the 


74  LEE'S   CENTENNIAL 

Union  would  be  legitimately  and  fairly  destroyed.  But 
in  either  case  the  people  is  the  only  moving  power." 
(Pages  295,  296.) 

De  Tocqueville  cannot,  of  course,  be  cited  as  an 
authority  on  American  Constitutional  Law.  Never 
theless,  an  acute  observer,  his  evidence  carries  great 
weight  on  the  question  of  the  views  generally  current 
on  all  constitutional  questions  at  the  time  he  collected 
the  materials  for  his  great  work  (1831-32).  The  follow 
ing  extracts  bearing  upon  the  topic  under  discussion 
are  found  in  the  translation  of  Democracy  in  America 
by  Henry  Reeve  (London,  1889). 

"In  America,  each  State  has  fewer  opportunities  of 
resistance  and  fewer  temptations  to  non-compliance; 
nor  can  such  a  design  be  put  in  execution  (if  indeed  it 
be  entertained)  without  an  open  violation  of  the  laws 
of  the  Union,  a  direct  interruption  of  the  ordinary 
course  of  justice,  and  a  bold  declaration  of  revolt;  in  a 
word,  without  taking  a  decisive  step  which  men  hesi 
tate  to  adopt."  .  .  .  "Here  the  term  Federal  govern 
ment  is  clearly  no  longer  applicable  to  a  state  of  things 
which  must  be  styled  an  incomplete  national  govern 
ment  :  a  form  of  government  has  been  found  out  which 
is  neither  exactly  national  nor  federal;  but  no  further 
progress  has  been  made,  and  the  new  word  which  will 
one  day  designate  this  novel  invention  does  not  yet 
exist."  (Vol.  i,  pp.  156,  157.) 

"The  Union  is  a  vast  body  which  presents  no  definite 
object  to  patriotic  feeling.  The  forms  and  limits  of  the 
State  are  distinct  and  circumscribed;  since  it  repre 
sents  a  certain  number  of  objects  which  are  familiar 
to  the  citizens  and  beloved  by  all.  It  is  identified  with 
the  very  soil,  with  the  right  of  property  and  the  do- 


APPENDIX  75 

mestic  affections,  with  the  recollections  of  the  past, 
the  labours  of  the  present,  and  the  hopes  of  the  future. 
Patriotism,  then,  which  is  frequently  a  mere  exten 
sion  of  individual  egotism,  is  still  directed  to  the  State, 
and  is  not  excited  by  the  Union."  (Vol.  i,  p.  394.) 

"The  Federal  Government  is,  therefore,  notwith 
standing  the  precautions  of  those  who  founded  it, 
naturally  so  weak  that  it  more  peculiarly  requires  the 
free  consent  of  the  governed  to  enable  it  to  subsist. 

"If  the  Union  were  to  undertake  to  enforce  the 
allegiance  of  the  Confederate  States  by  military  means, 
it  would  be  in  a  position  very  analogous  to  that  of  Eng 
land  at  the  time  of  the  War  of  Independence."  (Vol. 
i,  p.  395.) 

"The  Union  was  formed  by  the  voluntary  agree 
ment  of  the  States;  and,  in  uniting  together,  they  have 
not  forfeited  their  nationality,  nor  have  they  been  re 
duced  to  the  condition  of  one  and  the  same  people. 
If  one  of  the  States  chose  to  withdraw  its  name  from 
the  contract,  it  would  be  difficult  to  disprove  its  right 
of  doing  so;  and  the  Federal  Government  would 
have  no  means  of  maintaining  its  claims  directly, 
either  by  force  or  by  right."  (Vol.  i,  p.  396.) 

"It  appears  to  me  unquestionable  that  if  any  por 
tion  of  the  Union  seriously  desired  to  separate  itself 
from  the  other  States,  they  would  not  be  able,  nor 
indeed  would  they  attempt,  to  prevent  it;  and  that 
the  present  Union  will  only  last  as  long  as  the  States 
which  compose  it  choose  to  continue  members  of  the 
confederation."  (Vol.  i,  p.  397.) 

"The  dangers  which  threaten  the  American  Union 
do  not  originate  in  the  diversity  of  interests  or  of  opin 
ions,  but  in  the  various  characters  and  passions  of 
the  Americans.  The  men  who  inhabit  the  vast  terri- 


76  LEE'S  CENTENNIAL 

tory  of  the  United  States  are  almost  all  the  issue  of 
a  common  stock;  but  the  effects  of  the  climate,  and 
more  especially  of  slavery,  have  gradually  introduced 
very  striking  differences  between  the  British  settler 
of  the  Southern  States  and  the  British  settler  of  the 
North."  (Vol.  i,  p.  402.) 

"I  think  that  I  have  demonstrated  that  the  existence 
of  the  present  confederation  depends  entirely  on  the 
continued  assent  of  all  the  confederates;  and,  start 
ing  from  this  principle,  I  have  inquired  into  the  causes 
which  may  induce  the  several  States  to  separate  from 
the  others.  The  Union  may,  however,  perish  in  two 
different  ways :  one  of  the  confederate  States  may  choose 
to  retire  from  the  compact,  and  so  forcibly  to  sever 
the  Federal  tie;  and  it  is  to  this  supposition  that  most 
of  the  remarks  that  I  have  made  apply:  or  the  au 
thority  of  the  Federal  Government  may  be  progres 
sively  entrenched  on  by  the  simultaneous  tendency 
of  the  united  republics  to  resume  their  independence." 
(Vol.  i,  p.  412.) 

"The  Constitution  had  not  destroyed  the  distinct 
sovereignty  of  the  States;  and  all  communities,  of 
whatever  nature  they  may  be,  are  impelled  by  a  secret 
propensity  to  assert  their  independence."  (Vol.  i,  p. 
415.) 


/T  V     OF  THE  ^Ni 

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415. 


ROBERT  E.  LEE 


Centennial  Celebration  of  His  Birth  Held  Under  the 

Auspices  of  the  University  of  South  Carolina 

on  the  Nineteenth  Day  of  January,  1907 


JJNIVERSIIAS  CAP 
MERID. 
1801, 


PRESENTED      TO      MRS.      JOYNES      BY      MRS.      LEE,      AS 
THE     BEST     LIKENESS     OF     THE     GENERAL. 


ROBERT  E.  LEE 


Centennial  Celebration 


OF 


His  Birth 

Held  Under  the  Auspices 


OF  THE 


University  of  South  Carolina 


ON 


the  Nineteenth  Day  of  January 
1907 


Columbia  S.  C. 

The  State  Company,  Printers 

1907 


(From  Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  9,  1907.) 

On  motion  of  Kepresentative  Porter  A.  McMaster : 

Be  it  Resolved,  That  the  use  of  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Kep- 
resentatives  be  extended  to  the  Faculty  of  the  University  of  South 
Carolina  on  the  evening  of  January  19th  inst.,  for  public  services 
commemorative  of  the  centenary  of  the  birth  of  Gen.  Eobert  E. 
Lee. 


PROGRAMME 


Music  by  University  Glee  Club 
Prayer,  by  the  Rev.  W.  P.  Witsell 

Music 

Address,  "Lee,  the  Soldier," 

by  Major  Henry  Edward  Young,  of  General  Lee's  Staff 

Music 

Address,  "Lee,  the  College  President," 

by  Dr.  Edward  S.  Joynes,  formerly  of  General  Lee's  Faculty 

Music 

Presentation  of  medal  offered  by  Wade  Hampton  Chapter, 
U.  D.  C.,  to  Mr.  Eugene  Blake  for  best  essay  on:  "Was 
Secession  a  Constitutional  Eight  prior  to  1861  ?"  by  Professor 
Yates  Snowden 

Music 


2'Ty 


PRESENTED      CHRISTMAS,      1867,      BY      MRS.      LEE     TO 

WALKER     \V.     JOYNES;     THEN     FIVE 

YEARS     OLD. 


MAJOR  YOUNG'S  ADDRESS 


Mr.  President,  and  professors  of  the  University  of  South  Caro 
lina:  Let  me  in  the  first  place  thank  you,  and  thank  you  very 
sincerely  for  the  honor  you  have  conferred  on  me  in  giving  me 
the  opportunity  of  doing  myself  honor  by  showing  my  apprecia 
tion  of  and  admiration  for  the  great  soldier  and  man — "the 
greatest  of  all  modern  leaders,"  and  "the  most  perfect  man" — 
under  whom  I  had  the  honor  of  serving  personally  during  the 
late  war.  It  is  needless  to  say  how  greatly  I  value  and  cherish 
the  memory  of  my  almost  daily  association  with  him  during  the 
later  years  of  the  war. 

There  are  two  men  with  whom  in  life  I  have  associated  inti 
mately  and  who,  though  very  different  in  some  respects,  always 
impressed  me  as  great  men — the  greatest  I  have  been  privileged 
to  associate  with.  And  yet  how  different  their  fates.  The  one 
sinking  slowly  from  the  ken  of  men  and  now  within  a  generation 
nearly  forgotten — the  other  growing  greater  day  by  day — a  world 
hero — Mr.  James  L.  Petigru  and  Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee.  Both  were 
absolutely  fearless,  both  absolutely  upright,  both  absolutely  truth 
ful,  both  devoted  to  duty,  both  exercising  during  life  a  wide 
influence.  Both  ready  to  help  in  distress.  To  whom  the  poor  and 
needy  and  weak  never  appealed  in  vain ;  both  with  intellects  that 
placed  them  in  their  several  spheres  far  above  all  their  contem 
poraries.  And  yet,  before  the  generation  that  knew  him  has 
passed  away,  I  have  been  asked  in  a  body  of  lawyers,  when  I  men 
tioned  Petigru  as  the  highest  type  of  the  lawyer  I  had  ever  had 
the  privilege  of  knowing,  who  he  was,  when  he  lived,  and  what  he 
had  done.  He  lived  and  worked  and  toiled  faithfully  for  that 
jealous  mistress  the  law,  and  already  his  great  reputation  is  seen 
to  have  been  written  on  the  seashore  of  time  and  is  rapidly  wash 
ing  away. 

With  Lee,  on  the  contrary,  the  great  reputation  graven  on  the 
monuments  more  eternal  than  brass  are  but  graven  deeper  and 
deeper  by  time.  And  whatever  in  the  future  may  happen  to  the 


8 

South,  whether  it  produces  statesmen  again,  known  to  the  whole 
world — without  whose  name  the  world's  history  cannot  be  written 
— and  who  shall  join  in  the  building  up  of  this  mightiest  empire 
the  world  has  ever  known — or  be,  as  at  present,  the  mere  fly  on  the 
chariot  shaft ;  its  name  and  history  as  identified  with  Lee  and  his 
glorious  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  will  be  engraved  deeply  on 
those  same  tablets  of  brass  and  will  not  sink  to  oblivion.  But  it 
is  time  that  I  turn  to  the  duty  you  have  so  kindly  assigned  to  me 
as  one  of  the  staff  of  General  Lee. 

To  sketch  even  the  outline  of  General  Lee's  military  career  till 
his  life,  begun  by  Colonel  Marshall  and  yet  to  be  completed,  is 
given  to  the  world,  laying  open  more  than  what  mere  official 
records  can  show,  will  necessarily  be  unsatisfactory. 

Of  course  it  is  easy  to  sketch  his  career  from  West  Point, 
through  the  Mexican  war,  to  the  opening  of  the  great  Civil  war. 
The  history  of  those  days  has  been  fully  written,  and  no  doubt 
finally  written ;  but  from  that  time  on  no  full  history,  sanctioned 
and  approved  by  him,  or  those  naturally  acquainted  with  his 
views,  as,  for  instance,  Colonel  Taylor,  perhaps  his  most  intimate 
staff  officer  during  the  war,  has  been  written.  That  by  Colonel 
Long,  his  staff  officer,  fills  the  void  only  in  part — it  is  so  brief. 
The  campaign  of  West  Virginia  is  not  now  recognized  as  the 
absolute  failure  it  was  considered  in  1862,  and  the  clamor  of  the 
South  Carolina  papers  when  the  "mud- digger"  was  given  com 
mand  over  the  coast  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  etc.,  against  him, 
and  the  demand  that  a  brigadier  general  of  this  State  should 
have  the  command,  sounds  now  as  the  mere  madness  of  the  pass 
ing  hour;  fortunately  it  was  then  treated  as  the  madness  of  th« 
ignorant,  and  was  without  influence. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  defense  of  the  seacoast  of  Georgia  and 
South  Carolina  as  planned  by  General  Lee  remained  substantially 
unchanged  during  the  four  years  of  the  war,  and  was  successfully 
maintained,  yet  the  most  interesting  part  of  Lee's  career,  and  that 
most  known  to  the  world,  which,  from  no  mean  soldier  (Lord 
Wolseley),  has  won  for  him  the  well-earned  praise  of  being  not 
only  the  "greatest  soldier  of  his  age,"  but  also  of  "the  most  perfect 
man  I  ever  met,"  dates  from  his  taking  command  of  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia — great  praise,  certainly,  when  we  recall  that 
the  man  thus  placed  above  his  compeers  was  the  unsuccessful 


Lee  compared  with  the  unsuccessful  Sydney  Johnson,  Joe  John 
ston,  "Stonewall"  Jackson,  etc.,  the  successful  Grant,  Sherman, 
Sheridan,  McPherson,  etc.,  of  this  country,  and  the  successful  von 
Moltke  and  Skobeleff,  etc.,  of  Europe.  Von  Moltke,  too,  we  should 
recall,  places  General  Lee  above  Wellington. 

Lord  Wolseley  wrote  thus  just  after  Lee's  death :  Forty  years 
later,  in  his  personal  memoirs,  when  time  had  matured  his  judg 
ment,  Lord  Wolseley  styles  himself :  "A  close  student  of  war  all 
my  (his)  life,  and  especially  of  this  Confederate  war,  and  with  a 
full  knowledge  of  the  battles  fought  during  its  progress,"  repeats 
his  judgment  that  General  Lee  was  "the  greatest  of  all  modern 
leaders,"  and  compares  his  campaign  of  1862  with  that  of  Napo 
leon's  of  1796.  Speaking  of  his  visit  to  General  Lee,  he  says :  "I 
have  taken  no  special  trouble  to  remember  all  he  said  to  me  then 
(1862)  and  during  subsequent  conversations,  and  yet  it  is  still 
fresh  in  my  recollection.  But  it  is  natural  that  it  should  be  so,  for 
he  was  the  ablest  general,  and  to  me  seemed  the  greatest  man  I 
ever  conversed  with ;  and  yet  I  have  had  the  privilege  of  meeting 
von  Moltke  and  Prince  Bismarck,  and  at  least  on  one  occasion  had 
a  very  long  and  intensely  interesting  conversation  with  the  latter. 
General  Lee  was  one  of  the  few  men  who  ever  seriously  impressed 
and  awed  me  with  their  natural  and  their  inherent  greatness. 
Forty  years  have  come  and  gone  since  our  meeting,  and  yet  the 
majesty  of  his  manly  bearing,  the  genial  winning  grace,  the 
sweetness  of  his  smile  and  the  impressive  dignity  of  his  old-fash 
ioned  style  of  address,  come  back  to  me  amongst  the  most 
cherished  of  my  recollections.  His  greatness  made  me  humble, 
and  I  never  felt  my  own  individual  insignificance  more  keenly 
than  I  did  in  his  presence.  His  was  indeed  a  beautiful  character, 
and  of  him  it  might  truthfully  be  written:  'In  righteousness  he 
did  judge  and  make  war'." 

Nor  does  Lord  Wolseley  in  these  opinions  stand  alone.  His 
judgment  is  that  of  such  military  writers  and  critics  as  Chesney, 
Lawler,  and  of  the  higher  press,  Northern  as  well  as  foreign. 

Says  Lord  Wolseley  again:  "I  desire  to  make  known  to  the 
reader  not  only  the  renowned  soldier,  whom  I  believe  to  have  been 
the  greatest  of  his  age,  but  to  give  some  insight  into  the  character 
of  one  whom  I  have  always  considered  the  most  perfect  man  I 
ever  met." 


10 


It  would,  therefore,  be  a  mere  vain  repetition  to  repeat  praises 
made  by  those  so  competent  to  judge  and  whose  opinions  will 
weigh. 


It  will,  therefore,  be  far  more  profitable  and  suitable  to  this 
occasion  to  note  an  apparent  change  of  opinion  which  some  of 
the  more  recent  writers  seem  to  take,  and  the  effort  to  elevate  one 
of  Lee's  subordinates  above  him;  passing  over  the  omissions,  for 
instance,  of  General  Jackson  and  giving  him  the  credit  due  really 
to  General  Lee.  Is  this  well  founded  ?  General  Jackson  has  had 
the  good  fortune  of  having  his  life  written  by  several  devoted 
friends — two  clergymen,  members  of  his  staff — more  apt  to  be 
partisans  than  cool  judges — and  Colonel  Henderson,  even,  seems 
to  be  guided  by  Mrs.  Jackson. 

General  Lee's  life  has  not  yet  been  written  by  such,  except  the 
brief  life  suggested  rather  than  written  by  General  Long.  So  the 
world  has  General  Jackson's  side  of  the  case,  while  the  other  is 
wanting.  The  battles  around  Richmond  were  brilliant  successes 
for  General  Lee,  and  no  one  disputes  that  he  planned  them;  yet 
they  were  not  as  complete  as  they  should  have  been,  and  would 
have  been,  if  General  Jackson  had  not  delayed  at  Ashland,  and 
again  at  White  Oak  Swamp.  General  Jackson  had  been  sent  for 
by  General  Lee  before  he  opened  the  battles,  and  brought  to 
Richmond  from  the  valley,  and  fully  informed  of  the  campaign 
planned.  The  initial  move  hinged  upon  Jackson.  With  his  wing 
of  the  army  he  should  have  passed  Ashland  and  been  at  Slash 
Church  practically  on  the  25th  of  June,  1862,  and  then  attacked 
McClellan  on  the  flank,  but  he  had  not  then  passed  Ashland,  and 
did  not  attack  McClellan  till  the  afternoon  of  the  26th,  thus 
occasioning  the  check  and  useless  heavy  loss  at  Beaver  Dam ;  the 
enemy  retired  from  the  latter  place  as  soon  as  Jackson  reached 
his  flank.  So  also  the  next  day  at  White  Oak  Swamp.  By  his 
delay  there  he  failed  to  support  the  attack  of  Longstreet  and  Hill 
at  Frazier's  farm,  and  thus  "McClellan  only  escaped  destruction 
through  the  non-execution  of  Lee's  orders."  Colonel  Henderson 
and  Captain  Battine  would  have  us  believe  that  these  were  errors 
of  General  Lee,  and  not  of  General  Jackson;  in  Lee's  failing  to 
give  Jackson  precise  orders. 


II 


General  Longstreet  thus  states  the  matter:  "When  he  (Lee) 
set  out  on  his  first  campaign  (Chickahominy)  with  the  army,  the 
key  of  the  campaign  was  intrusted  to  General  Jackson,  who  named 
the  hour  for  the  opening  and  failed  to  meet  his  own  appointment. 
At  the  time  he  appointed,  A.  P.  Hill's,  D.  H.  Hill's,  and  Long- 
street's  commands  were  in  position  waiting  (Beaver  Dam,  etc.). 
About  eight  hours  after  his  time  was  up,  he  deliberately  marched 
past  the  engagement  and  went  into  camp,  a  mile  or  more  behind 
the  hot  battle.  He  remained  in  his  camp  next  morning,  and  per 
mitted  the  enemy,  dislodged  of  his  position  of  the  day  before,  to 
march  by  him  to  a  strong  position  at  Gaines's  Mill.  When  his 
column  reached  that  position,  his  leading  division  (D.  H.  Hill's) 
engaged  the  enemy's  right  without  orders.  He  called  the  division 
off  and  put  his  command  in  position  to  intercept  the  enemy's 
retreat  towards  the  Pamunkey,  from  which  he  was  afterwards 
called  to  his  part  in  the  general  engagement.  The  next  day  he  had 
the  cavalry  and  part  of  his  infantry  in  search  of  the  enemy's  next 
move.  At  my  headquarters  were  two  clever  young  engineers 
who  were  sent  to  find  what  the  enemy  was  about;  they  were  the 
first  to  report  the  enemy's  retreat  towards  James  River.  Orders 
were  given  for  Jackson  to  follow  on  the  direct  line  of  retreat, 
also  Magruder  and  Huger.  My  command  was  ordered  around 
through  the  outskirts  of  Richmond,  by  the  Darbytown  Road,  to 
interpose  between  McClellan's  army  and  the  James  River,  about 
twenty  miles;  the  other  troops  marching  by  routes  of  about  nine 
miles.  We  were  in  position  on  the  evening  of  the  29th  June,  and 
stood  in  front  of  the  enemy  all  of  the  30th,  fighting  a  severe  battle 
in  the  afternoon.  Magruder  and  Huger  got  up  after  night,  and 
Jackson  on  the  morning  of  the  1st.  After  the  battle  of  the  1st, 
Jackson,  Magruder  and  Huger  were  ordered  in  direct  pursuit 
along  the  route  of  retreat,  my  command  by  the  longer  route  of 
Nance's  Store.  Jackson's  column  and  mine  met  on  the  evening  of 
the  3rd  near  Westover,  the  enemy's  new  position." 

Naturally  this  may  be  tinged  somewhat  by  Longstreet's  bitter 
ness  under  the  criticisms  of  himself  after  Gettysburg ;  still  Long- 
street  was  not  one  to  misrepresent  facts. 

Again,  of  this  White  Oak  Swamp  delay,  Colonel  Allan,  Jack 
son's  own  chief  of  ordnance  and  his  devoted  friend,  says : 


12 

"Only  the  column  under  Longstreet  and  Hill  did  anything,  the 
others  accomplished  nothing.  They  did  not  even  prevent  rein 
forcements  from  going  to  the  Federal  centre.  It  is  impossible  to 
deny  that  General  Lee  was  very  poorly  served  on  the  occasion  by 
his  subordinates.  Holmes  was  so  imposed  upon  by  Porters' 
demonstration  that  he  was  not  only  paralyzed  for  the  day,  but 
continued  inactive  during  the  great  struggle  at  Malvern  Hill. 
*  *  *  Magruder,  out  of  the  fight,  spent  the  afternoon  in 
marching  and  countermarching.  *  *  *  Huger's  feeble  opera 
tions  were  the  most  disappointing  of  all.  He  was  nearest  to  Long- 
street,  and  he  was  almost  on  the  edge  of  the  battlefield,  yet  he  did 
nothing,  *  *  *  nor  is  it  possible  to  free  from  blame  on  this 
occasion  a  greater  soldier  than  Holmes  or  Huger;  Jackson,  igno 
rant  of  the  country,  had,  in  the  swamp  and  Franklin's  veterans, 
substantial  causes  of  delay,  but  they  were  not  such  obstacles  as 
usually  held  Jackson  in  check.  *  *  *  Jackson's  comparative 
inaction  was  a  matter  of  surprise  at  the  time,  and  has  never  been 
satisfactorily  explained." 

Remarkable  as  the  admission  of  Colonel  Allan,  Jackson's  staff 
officer,  that  Jackson  is  really  to  blame  for  the  failure  of  a  com 
plete  victory  in  the  battles  around  Richmond,  equally  remarkable 
is  the  present  admission  of  another  of  his  staff  officers  (Rev.  Mr. 
Jones),  that  Chancellorsville  is  General  Lee's  work,  not  Jackson's. 
Instead  of  suggesting  the  flank  movement  to  General  Lee's  ques 
tion,  "How  can  we  get  at  these  people?"  he  replies  only,  "You 
know;  show  me  what  to  do,  and  I'll  do  it."  When  General  Lee 
had  explained  the  movement,  he  caught  it  quick  enough  and 
executed  it  with  his  usual  force  and  vigor.  "Such  an  executive 
officer  the  sun  never  shone  on,"  said  General  Lee  of  him;  or,  as 
McClellan  is  said  to  have  expressed  it,  "Jackson  is  the  best  execu 
tive  officer  of  the  Confederacy,  as  Lee  is  its  greatest  general." 
Despite  of  all  the  balderdash  and  exaggerated  fine  writing  of  Gen 
eral  Gordon,  Captain  Battine  has  gone  too  fast  and  too  far  ahead, 
even  of  Colonel  Henderson,  in  claiming  Chancellorsville  for 
General  Jackson.  The  truth  is  now  gradually  coming  to  light. 
It  is  becoming  clearer  and  clearer  that  Chancellorsville  was 
fought,  as  it  was  fought,  really  against  Jackson's  ideas.  He 
wished  to  attack  Sedgwick — not  move  on  Hooker.  Even  when  in 
front  of  Chancellorsville,  he  thought  Hooker  would  cross  the  river 


13 

and  move  to  support  Sedgwick.  "General  Lee  seemed  to  be  the 
only  one  who  seemed  to  have  the  absolute  conviction  that  the 
real  move  of  the  Federal  army  was  the  one  he  was  meeting  then." 
Replying  to  Jackson,  finally,  "But,  general,  we  must  get  ready  to 
attack  the  enemy  if  we  should  find  him  here  tomorrow,  and  you 
must  make  all  arrangements  to  move  around  his  right  flank." 
Then,  says  a  bystander,  "Jackson's  face  lighted  with  a  smile,  and 
rising  and  touching  his  cap,  he  said,  'My  troops  will  move  at  four 
o'clock.' ' 

General  Lee's  own  words  are  in  a  letter  he  wrote  in  reply  to  an 
enquiry  by  Bledsoe,  seeking  to  give  Jackson  the  credit  of  Chan- 
cellorsville,  but  wise  enough  to  enquire  if  he  was  correct :  "I  have 
the  greatest  reluctance  to  say  anything  that  might  be  considered 
as  detracting  from  his  (Jackson's)  well- deserved  fame,  for  I 
believe  no  one  was  more  convinced  of  his  worth  or  appreciated 
him  more  highly  than  myself;  yet  your  knowledge  of  military 
affairs,  if  you  have  none  of  the  events  themselves,  will  teach  you 
that  this  could  not  have  been  so.  Every  movement  of  an  army 
must  be  well  considered  and  properly  ordered,  and  every  one  who 
knew  General  Jackson  must  know  that  he  was  too  good  a  soldier 
to  violate  this  fundamental  principle.  In  the  operations  around 
Chancellorsville,  I  overtook  General  Jackson,  who  had  been 
placed  in  command  of  the  advance  as  the  skirmishers  of  the 
approaching  armies  met,  advanced  with  the  troops  to  the  Federal 
line  of  defenses,  and  was  on  the  field  until  their  whole  army 
recrossed  the  Rappahannock.  There  is  no  question  as  to  who  was 
responsible  for  the  operations  of  the  Conferedates,  or  to  whom 
any  failure  would  have  been  charged." 

The  writer  of  General  Jackson's  life,  to  exonerate  him  from  the 
blame  of  the  failure  at  Ashland  and  White  Oak  Swamp  to  play 
his  allotted  part  in  the  battles  before  Richmond,  throws  the  blame 
on  Lee,  as  having  failed  to  give  Jackson  specific  orders.  I  don't 
suppose  that  to  Longstreet,  or  Jackson,  or  Hill,  or  Stuart,  General 
Lee  ever  gave  iron-clad  orders.  When  Jackson  had  been  informed 
of  the  plans  of  the  attack  and  fully  discussed  them  at  Richmond, 
and  knew  the  time  fixed  for  the  movement  of  the  troops,  on  the 
left  of  the  enemy,  he  could  not  have  failed  to  know  that  he  was 
to  attack  at  that  time,  and  to  cooperate.  Yet  greater  are  the  mis 
representations  which  have  been  made  by  General  Jackson's 


14 

admirers  as  to  Chancellorsville.  Of  a  victory,  perhaps  the 
greatest  won  by  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  in  the  triumph 
of  which  Providence,  alas,  kept  him  from  sharing,  everything  has 
been  claimed  for  him.  Fortunately  so  openly  that  General  Lee 
was  compelled,  by  their  own  action,  to  notice  the  claim.  He 
does  this  in  his  usual  modest,  self -deprecatory  way,  viz.,  in  a  letter 
to  Mrs.  Jackson  herself  of  25th  January,  1866,  in  reply  to  one 
from  her,  I  quote  from  it:  "The  opinion  of  General  Jackson  in 
reference  to  the  propriety  of  attacking  the  Federal  Army  under 
General  McClellan  at  Harrison's  Landing  is  not,  I  think,  cor 
rectly  stated.  Upon  my  arrival  there  the  day  after  General 
Longstreet  and  himself,  I  was  disappointed  that  no  opportunity 
for  striking  General  McClellan  on  the  retreat,  or  in  his  then 
position,  had  occurred;  and  went  forward  with  General  Jackson 
alone  on  foot,  and  after  a  careful  reconnoissance  of  the  whole 
line  and  position,  he  certainly  stated  to  me  at  that  time  the  impro 
priety  of  attacking.  I  am  misrepresented  at  the  battle  of  Chan 
cellorsville  in  proposing  an  attack  in  front,  the  first  evening  of 
our  arrival.  On  the  contrary,  I  decided  against  it,  and  stated  to 
General  Jackson  we  must  attack  on  our  left  as  soon  as  practicable, 
and  the  necessary  movement  of  troops  began  immediately."  If 
Lee  decided  against  this,  Jackson  alone  could  have  proposed  it. 

This  letter  of  General  Lee  settles  forever,  or  should  settle  for 
ever,  the  claim  of  General  Jackson's  friends  that  he  was  the  author 
of  the  celebrated  flank  movement  at  Chancellorsville,  or  that  he 
even  suggested  it.  It  is  absurd  enough  to  claim  that  in  any  battle 
a  subordinate  should  direct  it  and  have  the  credit  for  it.  He  obeys 
orders,  and  General  Jackson  said  often  he  would  obey  any  officer 
in  command  cheerfully,  but  General  Lee  he  would  follow  blind 
fold,  and  at  Chancellorsville,  he  did  obey.  But,  in  fact,  Chan 
cellorsville  was  not  fought  according  to  Jackson's  suggestion  at 
all.  When  Sedgwick  crossed  the  Rappahannock  and  formed  his 
line  of  battle  in  front  of  Fredericksburg,  while  Hooker  crossed  the 
same  river  some  miles  above,  Jackson  urged  that  Sedgwick  should 
be  attacked.  General  Lee  was  satisfied  that  the  main  attack  was 
to  be  by  Hooker,  and  that  he  should  attack  Hooker,  and  not  wait 
for  his  attack.  I  well  remember  the  occasion,  almost  every  staff 
officer  of  Lee  had  been  sent  out  to  observe  Sedgwick's  move 
ments.  The  two  armies  were  in  line  opposite  each  other,  but 


both  apparently  absolutely  quiet — so  quiet  that  a  deer  which  was 
caught  between  the  lines  was  pursued  by  the  men  of  both  sides. 
The  moment  it  passed  a  certain  imaginary  line  the  men  of  one  side 
ceased  pursuit,  and  the  opposite  side  took  it  up,  till  the  deer  was 
finally  caught  by  the  Federals,  but  not  even  a  picket  fired  a  shot. 
During  the  friendly  contest  not  a  shot  was  fired  even  by  a  picket. 
General  Lee  was  confined  to  his  bed  by  the  disease  which 
finally  troubled  him  so  much,  the  adhesion  of  the  pleura  to  the 
side,  and  Jackson  sat  by  his  bedside  discussing  the  situation. 
Upon  Lee's  staff  reporting  General  Jackson's  views  still  differing 
from  his,  General  Lee  got  up  from  his  bed  and  rode  to  a  hill,  from 
which  most  of  the  ground  could  be  seen.  For  about  an  hour,  with 
his  glasses,  he  closely  and  silently  scrutinized  the  enemy's  lines. 
Then,  turning  to  General  Jackson,  he  remarked :  "Our  fight  must 
be  at  Chancellorsville,"  and  by  signal  ordered  General  Anderson, 
then  near  Chancellorsville  with  his  division,  not  to  bring  on  a 
fight,  but  to  hold  the  enemy  without  doing  this,  and  ordered 
McLaws  to  move  to  Anderson's  aid  at  once,  and  ordered  General 
Jackson  to  move  his  command  before  daylight  to  where  Ander 
son  was,  near  Chancellorsville,  and  to  take  command  there  till  he 
(Lee)  should  reach  the  spot;  and  ordered  his  general  staff  to  be 
ready  before  daylight  to  report  to  General  Jackson.  We  were 
all  ready  before  day,  but  General  Jackson  did  not  pass  our 
quarters  till  the  sun  was  well  up,  and  his  command  followed  a 
little  later.  General  Long  states  that  General  Jackson  passed 
headquarters  at  9  a.  m.,  but  it  was  earlier,  according  to  my  recol 
lection.  About  9  a.  m.  General  Jackson  was  upon  the  battlefield, 
and  was  arranging  to  open  the  battle  with  General  Anderson's 
division,  before  Hill,  Colston  and  Rodes  were  in  line.  General 
Lee,  who  had  quitted  his  sick  bed,  learning  this,  reached  the  field 
on  a  gallop  and  the  attack,  by  his  order,  was  reduced  to  a  skirmish 
till  Hill  and  McLaws  were  in  position  to  join,  and  then  the  real 
attack  began,  supported  by  Colston  and  Rodes  in  reserve.  It  is 
pleasant  to  mention  here  an  anecdote  of  a  brilliant  soldier  of  the 
Confederacy,  whose  life  was  sacrified  for  its  sake.  Jackson's  corps 
was  in  three  lines :  First,  Hill ;  second,  Colston,  and  third,  Rodes. 
Hill  being  outnumbered  and  hard  pressed  called  on  Colston  for 
support.  He  replied  he  had  no  orders.  The  gallant,  glorious, 
youthful  Alabamian  Rodes  wrho,  with  his  men  were  lying  down 


i6 

behind  him,  heard  this.  He  sprang  up  and  called  his  men,  "Hill 
wants  help,  we'll  help  him."  The  men  were  up  in  a  moment  with 
a  Rebel  yell,  and  their  charge,  with  Hill's,  drove  the  enemy  back 
and  won  the  day  and  the  handsome  young  brigadier  his  major 
generalship,  for  that  evening  General  Lee  asked  it  for  him  by 
telegraph.  Colston  was  not  heard  of  again  in  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia  after  this  battle. 

Colonel  Henderson,  in  his  life  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  evidently 
writes  on  papers  and  memoranda  furnished  to  him  by  Mrs.  Jack 
son,  and  is  evidently  strongly  biased  by  them;  still  he  prints 
General  Lee's  letter  to  Mrs.  Jackson  correcting  some  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Dabney's  errors.  Unfortunately,  however,  for  the  truth  of 
history,  the  book  that  Colonel  Henderson  has  written  is  the  most 
important  book  on  the  war  in  Virginia,  and  is  entirely  openly 
partisan  for  General  Jackson.  General  Lee's  book  on  the  war  is 
not  yet  before  the  world.  So  the  matter  has  gone  and  now,  in  the 
last  English  book  on  the  subject,  by  Captain  Battine,  Ave  find  this 
most  positive  statement :  "The  fall  of  the  chief  who  designed  and 
executed  the  master  stroke  in  the  very  hour  of  victory  adds  pathos 
to  the  story,  and  appropriately  closed  his  (Jackson's)  too  brief 
career  of  glory.  Great  as  were  the  moral  and  material  results  of 
the  victory,  they  were  bought  at  all  too  dear  a  price,  for  with  the 
fatal  shot  which  struck  down  Stonewall  Jackson  began  the  series 
of  disastrous  events  leading  to  the  conquest  of  the  Confederacy." 
General  Jackson,  in  fact,  merely  opened  the  battle  of  Chancellors- 
ville.  It  was  won  the  next  day,  when  he  had,  unfortunately,  been 
wounded  and  had  been  carried  away  from  the  field. 

Doubtless  it  is  true  what  Captain  Battine  says  of  General  Jack 
son;  every  A.  N.  Va.  man  wrill  join  him  in  it  most  fully:  "The 
possession  of  such  a  leader  is  of  priceless  value  to  any  State  in 
time  of  war."  But  the  fact  that  General  Jackson's  achievements 
have  been  written  of  by  his  friends,  his  widow  and  chaplain 
apparently  inspiring  them,  has  given,  I  think,  an  undue  color. 

The  valley  campaign  was  ordered  and  conceived  by  General 
Johnston.  General  Johnston  told  me  this  himself,  and  his 
Memoirs  verify  it.  Jackson  executed  his  orders  as  only  the  "best 
executive  officer  the  sun  ever  shone  on"  could  execute  them  it  is 
true.  The  same,  changing  the  name  of  Joe  Johnston  to  Lee,  is 
true  of  his  other  campaigns,  and  so,  doubtless,  when  the  history  of 


17 

the  Civil  War  is  fully  written,  General  McClellan's  opinion  will 
be  found  the  correct  one,  that  "Lee,  as  a  general,  was  incompar 
ably  the  first  of  the  Confederates,  and  Jackson,  as  an  executive 
officer,  without  an  equal  among  them." 

The  judgment  of  General  Early,  himself  a  soldier,  and  inti 
mately  acquainted  with  both  Lee  and  Jackson,  and  having  served 
throughout  the  war  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  will  be 
accepted  above  that  of  Captain  Battine. 

"'As  glorious  as  was  this  victory  ( Chancellors ville)  it  never 
theless  shed  a  gloom  over  the  whole  arm}*-  and  country,  for  in  it 
had  fallen  the  great  lieutenant  to  whom  General  Lee  had  always 
intrusted  the  execution  of  his  most  daring  plans,  and  who  had 
proved  himself  so  worthy  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  him.  It  is 
not  necessary  for  me  to  stop  here,  to  delineate  the  character  and 
talents  of  General  Jackson.  As  long  as  unselfish  patriotism, 
Christian  devotion,  and  purity  of  character,  and  deeds  of  heroism 
shall  command  the  admiration  of  men,  Stonewall  Jackson's  name 
and  fame  will  be  reverenced.  Of  all  who  mourned  his  death,  none 
felt  more  acutely  the  loss  the  country  and  the  army  has  sustained 
than  General  Lee.  General  Jackson  had  always  appreciated  and 
sympathized  with  the  bold  conceptions  of  the  commanding  gen 
eral,  and  entered  upon  their  execution  with  the  most  cheerful 
alacrity  and  zeal.  General  Lee  never  found  it  necessary  to  accom 
pany  him,  to  see  that  his  plans  were  carried  out,  but  could  always 
trust  him  alone ;  and  well  might  he  say,  when  Jackson  fell,  that  he 
had  lost  his  'right  arm.'  r 

I  don't  think  one  need  fear  much  that  Captain  Battine  will 
change  the  view  of  history,  which  already  seems  to  have  put  Lee 
and  Jackson  in  their  proper  positions — one  the  natural  com 
mander,  the  other  his  right  hand. 

And  perhaps,  too,  if  we  seek  the  opinions  of  English  soldiers, 
that  of  Colonel  Lawler  may  be  nearer  the  truth  than  Captain  Bat- 
tine,  viz. :  "But,  after  all,  the  one  name,  which  in  connection  with 
the  great  American  Civil  War  posteri  narratum  atque  traditum 
super stes  erit,  is  the  name  of  Kobert  Edward  Lee" ;  and  Colonel 
Chesney :  "The  day  will  come  *  *  *  History  will  speak  with  a 
clear  voice  *  *  *  and  place  above  all  others  the  name  of  the  great 
chief  of  whom  we  have  written  (Lee).  In  strategy,  mighty;  in 
battle,  terrible;  in  adversity  and  in  prosperity,  a  hero  indeed; 


i8 

with  the  simple  devotion  to  duty  and  the  rare  purity  of  the  ideal 
Christian  knight,  he  joined  all  the  kingly  qualities  of  a  leader  of 
men." 

"There  is  a  true  glory  and  a  true  honor:  The  glory  of  duty 
done.  The  honor  of  integrity  and  principle."  After  Lee's  death, 
an  old  knapsack  which  he  had  used  was  found  with  a  few  bread 
crumbs  and  an  old  slip  of  dingy  paper  with  these  words  written 
on  them.  This  had  gone  through  the  war  with  him — aye,  through 
life. 

And  so,  despite  modern  seekers  after  something  new,  the  Con 
federacy  can  safely  leave  the  memory  of  its  greatest  man,  whether 
citizen  or  soldier  "General  R.  E.  Lee,  the  most  stainless  of  living 
commanders,  and,  except  in  fortune,  the  greatest." 


•\ 


MARY     CUSTIS     LEE;     PRESENTED     BY     MRS.     LEE     TO 
MRS.     JOYNES. 


ADDRESS 
LEE,  THE  COLLEGE  PRESIDENT 

BY  DR.  EDWARD  S.  JOYNES. 

The  most  glorious  object  in  nature  is  the  sun.  Yet  in  full 
meridian  its  brightness  dazzles  the  eye.  But  sometimes,  in  the 
subdued  glow  of  sunset,  its  magic  radiance  is  revealed  in  resplen 
dent  charm  of  light  and  color,  more  beautiful  because  less 
dazzling,  than  the  midday  brilliance.  So  it  is  sometimes,  but 
rarely,  in  human  character.  So  it  was,  notably,  with  him  whose 
statue  guards  this  capitol — South  Carolina's  noblest  hero  and 
exemplar,  Hampton — whose  work  in  the  evening  of  his  life,  as  the 
great  Pacificator,  outshines  even  the  glory  of  his  military  achieve 
ments.  So  it  was,  most  conspicuously,  with  Robert  E.  Lee,  who  in 
his  latest  years,  in  the  humble  office  of  a  college  president,  bearing 
bravely  the  burden  of  daily  duty,  beneath  the  weight  of  a  disap 
pointment  which  might  well  have  crushed  the  strongest  heart, 
was  yet  to  illustrate  and  confirm  the  finest  traits  of  a  character 
whose  perfection  and  power,  on  the  highest  fields  of  action,  had 
already  won  the  admiration  of  the  world. 

I  am  to  speak  of  General  Lee  as  a  College  President  only — not 
at  all  of  his  larger  life  or  achievement  in  military  service.  In 
this  humbler  capacity  it  was  my  privilege  to  serve  him  and  to 
know  him  intimately — a  privilege — ah,  how  great ! — so  great  that 
I  did  not  realize  it  until  it  was  gone.  Yet,  ever  since,  I  look  back 
upon  it,  with  increasing  estimate,  as  the  golden  age  of  my  life — 
and  with  ever  increasing  regret  that  I  could  not  know  him  better 
and  serve  him  better  than  I  did.  Such,  I  know,  was  the  feeling  of 
all  of  us  who  were  privileged  to  serve  with  him — of  whom  I  am 
now,  with  one  exception,  the  sole  survivor.*  Today,  all  over  the 


•The  other  survivor  of  the  faculty  is  my  class-mate  at  the  University  of  Vir 
ginia  (1853),  Alexander  L.  Nelson,  Professor  of  Mathematics  for  fifty-two  years 
(1854-1906) — now  retired  on  the  Carnegie  Foundation.  Others,  since  distinguished 
as  teachers  or  otherwise,  were  then  young  instructors,  but  not  members  of  the 
faculty.  The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  William  Jones,  General  Lee's  biographer  and  trusted  friend, 
was  one  of  the  chaplains  of  the  College.  It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  the 
students  of  that  day  who  have  since  attained  distinction. 


2O 

South,  in  many  colleges  as  elsewhere,  this  Centennial  is  fitly  cele 
brated  ;  for  General  Lee,  as  a  college  president,  has  ennobled  every 
college  in  the  land,  and  the  memory  of  his  great  example  will  be 
cherished  so  long  as  recurring  centennials  shall  come. 

In  what  I  shall  say  to  you,  my  friends,  I  shall  speak  without 
ornament  or  oratory,  but  simply,  and  of  intimate  personal  knowl 
edge.  I  shall  make  large  use  of  material  written  by  myself  soon 
after  General  Lee's  death,  when  recollection  was  fresher  than 
now.*  Much  of  documentary  evidence,  which,  though  interesting, 
has  already  been  widely  published,  I  shall  omit;  and  if,  on  other 
somewhat  technical  points,  I  seem  to  go  too  much  into  detail,  my 
apology  must  be  that,  in  my  opinion,  all  authentic  facts  concern 
ing  General  Lee,  as  a  college  president,  are  of  permanent  interest 
and  importance. 

********* 

General  Lee  accepted  the  presidency  of  Washington  College,  in 
the  first  place,  from  a  profound  and  deliberate  sense  of  duty.  The 
same  high  principle  of  action  that  had  characterized  his  conduct 
in  the  gravest  crises  of  public  affairs  marked  his  decision  here; 
and  here,  as  ever,  duty  alone  determined  his  choice.*  There  was 
absolutely  nothing  in  this  position  that  could  have  tempted  him. 
Not  only  was  it  uncongenial  with  all  the  habits  of  his  past  life, 
and  remote  from  all  the  associations  in  which  he  had  formerly 
taken  pleasure,  but  it  was  at  that  time  most  uninviting  in  itself. 
The  college  to  which  he  was  called  was  broken  in  fortune  and  in 
hope.  The  wyar  had  practically  closed  its  doors.  Its  buildings  had 
been  pillaged  and  defaced,  and  its  library  scattered.  It  had  now 
neither  money  nor  credit,  and  it  was  even  doubtful  whether  it 
would  be  shortly  reopened  at  all  for  the  reception  of  students. 
The  faculty  were  few  in  number,  disorganized  and  dispirited. 
Of  the  slender  endowment  that  had  survived  the  war  hardly  any 
thing  was  available,  and  ready  money  could  not  be  secured  even 
for  the  most  immediate  and  pressing  wants  of  the  college.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  offer  of  the  presidency  to  General  Lee 
seemed  well-nigh  presumptuous ;  and  surely  it  was  an  offer  from 
which  he  had  nothing  to  expect,  either  of  fortune  or  of  fame.  The 


*In  December,  1870,  for  the  University  Monthly   (March,  1871). 
*His  letter  of  acceptance,  often  printed,  strikingly  illustrates  this  trait  of  his 
character,  as  well  as  his  modesty  and  unselfishness. 


21 

men,  however,  who  made  this  election,  the  trustees  of  Washington 
College — ever  honored  be  their  memory  for  their  noble  concep 
tion — had  not  calculated  in  vain  in  their  estimate  of  General  Lee's 
character.  They  felt  that  this  position,  however  humble  it  might 
seem,  would  afford  to  him  what  from  their  knowledge  of  the  man 
they  were  sure  would  be  the  most  acceptable  to  him — a  sphere 
of  duty  in  which  he  could  spend  his  days  in  the  service  of  his 
beloved  people ;  and  though  the  country  looked  on  astonished  and 
incredulous,  the  result  showed  that  they  had  not  been  mistaken.* 
Suffice  it  to  say  here,  that  it  was  a  deliberate  sense  of  duty  to  his 
fellow-countrymen,  and  a  desire  to  pay  back  as  far  as  he  could, 
through  their  sons,  the  sufferings  and  sorrows  of  his  own  genera 
tion  in  the  South,  that  determined  his  decision.  He  had  already 
fully  resolved  not  to  leave  Virginia  under  any  circumstances ;  and 
this  position,  humble  as  it  seemed  to  be,  gave  him  the  wished-for 
opportunity  of  laboring  for  her  people  and  for  the  South.  There 
fore  he  accepted  it. 

The  profound  sense  of  duty  which  marked  General  Lee's  accep 
tance  of  this  office  characterized  also  his  whole  administration  of 
it.  He  entertained  the  prof oundest  convictions  on  the  importance 
of  educational  influences,  both  to  individuals  and  to  the  country, 
and  the  deepest  sense  of  personal  responsibility  in  his  own  office. 
He  felt  that  an  institution  like  Washington  College  owed  duty 
not  only  to  its  own  students  but  to  the  whole  country,  and  that  its 
moral  obligations  were  not  only  supreme  within  its  own  sphere, 
but  were  attached  to  the  wider  interests  of  public  virtue  and  of 
true  religion  among  all  the  people.  Everybody  around  him  felt 
unconsciously  that  he  was  actuated  by  these  principles,  and  all 
were  impressed  by  his  high  conceptions  of  duty  and  the  singleness 
of  his  devotion  to  it.  Nothing  else,  indeed,  could  have  sustained 
him  so  serenely  through  so  many  and  so  constant  details  of  labor 
and  of  trial.  Nothing  else  could  have  held  his  thoughts  so  high  or 
kept  his  heart  so  strong  in  the  midst  of  daily  tasks  always  so 
severe,  often  so  trivial  and  discouraging.  But  he  never  flagged; 
and  though  he  fully  comprehended  the  difficulties  of  his  office, 
and  was  often  wearied  with  its  incessant  labors,  no  word  of 


*Details  of  this  event — as  of  many  other  facts  herein  referred  to — may  be  found 
in  Jones'  "Personal  Reminiscences." 


22 

despondency  fell  from  his  lips.  He  felt  that  he  was  doing  his 
duty.  "I  have,"  he  said,  as  reported  by  the  Hon.  Mr.  Hilliard,* 
"a  self-imposed  task  which  I  cannot  forsake";  and  in  this  spirit 
he  met  all  the  details  of  his  daily  labors,  cheerfully  to  the  last. 
Again  and  again,  during  his  life  at  Lexington,  were  tempting 
offers  urged  upon  him — offers  of  large  income,  with  comparative 
ease  and  more  active  and  congenial  employment;  but  though  he 
fully  appreciated  these  considerations  and  was  not  indifferent  to 
the  attractions  presented  by  such  offers,  he  turned  from  them  all 
with  the  same  reply.  He  had  chosen  his  post  of  duty  and  he  clung 
to  it.  Year  by  year  the  conception  of  his  duty  seemed  to  grow 
stronger  with  him ;  and  year  by  year  the  college,  as  its  instrument 
and  representative,  grew  dearer  to  him.  And  as  gradually  the 
fruits  of  his  labors  began  to  be  manifest,  and  the  moral  and  intel 
lectual  results  of  his  influence  approved  themselves  even  to  his  own 
modest  self-estimate,  his  heart  grew  only  warmer,  and  his  zeal 
more  zealous,  in  his  work. 

His  sense  of  personal  duty  was  also  expanded  into  a  warm  solic 
itude  for  all  who  were  associated  with  him.  To  the  faculty  he  was 
an  elder  brother,  beloved  and  revered,  and  full  of  all  tender  sym 
pathy.*  To  the  students  he  was  a  father  in  carefulness,  in  encour 
agement,  in  reproof.  Their  welfare  and  their  conduct  and 
character  as  gentlemen  were  his  chief  concern ;  and  this  solicitude 
was  not  limited  to  their  collegiate  years,  but  followed  them 
abroad  into  life.  He  thought  it  to  be  the  office  of  a  college  not 
merely  to  educate  the  intellect,  but  to  make  Christian  men.  The 
moral  and  religious  character  of  the  students  was  more  precious 
in  his  eyes  even  than  their  intellectual  progress,  and  was  made  the 
special  object  of  his  constant  personal  solicitude.  In  his  annual 
reports  to  the  trustees,  which  were  models  of  clear  and  dignified 
composition,  he  always  dwelt  with  peculiar  emphasis  upon  these 
interests;  and  nothing  in  the  college  gratified  him  more  than  its 
marked  moral  and  religious  improvement  during  his  adminis 
tration.  To  the  Rev.  Dr.  White  he  said,  as  affectingly  narrated 
soon  after  his  death  by  that  venerable  minister :  "I  shall  be  dis- 


*See  Jones'  "Personal  Reminiscences  of  Gen.  R.  E.  Lee,"  p.  146. 

*General  Lee's  treatment  of  his  faculty  was  not  only  courteous,  but  kind  and 
affectionate.  My  wife  reminds  me  that  once,  when  I  was  detained  at  home  by  sick 
ness,  General  Lee  came  every  day,  through  a  deep  Lexington  snow,  and  climbed  the 
high  stairs,  to  inquire  about  me  and  to  comfort  her. 


23 

appointed,  sir — I  shall  fail  in  the  leading  object  that  brought  me 
here — unless  these  young  men  all  become  consistent  Christians." 
Other  expressions,  bearing  eloquent  witness  to  the  same  truth, 
might  be  quoted ;  but  none  could  be  more  eloquent  than  the  steady 
tenor  of  his  own  life,  quietly  yet  constantly  devoted  to  the  highest 
ends  of  duty  and  of  religion.* 

Such  wTere  the  principles  wrhich  actuated  General  Lee  as  presi 
dent  of  Washington  College,  and  their  effects  showed  themselves 
in  all  the  details  of  his  administration.  In  the  discipline  of  the 
college  his  moral  influence  was  supreme.  A  disciplinarian  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  term,  as  it  is  often  most  unworthily  applied, 
he  was  not.  He  was  no  seeker-out  of  small  offences,  no  stickler  for 
formal  regulations.f  In  his  construction  of  college  rules,  and  in 
his  dealings  with  actions  generally,  he  was  most  liberal;  but  in 
his  estimate  of  motives,  and  in  the  requirements  of  principle  and 
honor,  he  was  exacting  to  the  last  degree.  Youthful  indiscretion 
found  in  him  the  most  lenient  of  judges;  but  falsehood  or  mean 
ness  had  no  toleration  with  him.  He  looked  rather  to  the  prin 
ciples  of  good  conduct  than  to  mere  outward  acts.  He  was  most 
scrupulous  in  exacting  a  proper  obedience  to  lawful  authority; 
but  he  was  always  the  last  to  condemn,  and  the  most  just  to 
hear  the  truth,  even  in  behalf  of  the  worst  offenders.  Hence 
in  the  use  of  college  punishments  he  was  cautious,  forbearing, 
and  lenient;  but  he  was  not  the  less  firm  in  his  demands  and 
prompt,  when  need  was,  in  his  measures.  His  reproof  was  stern, 
yet  kind,  and  often  melting  in  its  tenderness;  and  his  appeals, 
always  addressed  to  the  noblest  motives,  were  irresistible.  The 
hardiest  offenders  were  alike  awed  by  his  presence,  and  moved 


*  Great  as  was  the  need  of  the  College  for  academic  buildings,  yet  the  first 
building  erected,  under  General  Lee's  direction,  was  a  chapel  for  worship — the  same 
under  which  his  remains  lie  buried — and  he  never  failed  there  to  attend  morning 
prayers  or  public  worship,  (Gen.  Lee's  views  on  religious  training  are  fully  set 
forth  by  my  colleague,  Rev.  Dr.  Kirkpatrick,  in  Dr.  Jones'  "Personal  Reminiscences 
of  General  Lee.") 

fThe  "honor  principle" — which  is  the  pride  of  Southern  colleges — never  had  a 
stronger  advocate  or  a  better  illustration  than  General  Lee.  He  did  not  approve  of 
military  ^regulations  in  college.  I  have  heard  him  say  that  military  discipline  was, 
unfortunately,  necessary  in  military  education,  but  was,  in  his  opinion,  a  most 
unsuitable  training  for  civil  life.  A  still  more  remarkable  expression  is  recorded 
by  Professor  Humphreys,  in  the  memorial  number  of  the  Wake  Forest  Student: 
"He  warned  me"  (Prof.  H.  was  then  an  instructor  in  the  College)  "against  inflex 
ible  rules  adopted  beforehand,  and  suddenly  startled  me  by  saying :  'The  great  mis 
take  of  my  life  was  taking  a  military  education.'  " 


24 

often  to  tears  by  his  words;  and  there  Avas  no  student  who  did 
not  dread  a  reproof  from  General  Lee  more  than  every  other 
punishment.  In  all  his  official  actions,  and,  indeed,  in  all  his  inter 
course  with  the  students,  he  looked  to  the  elevation  of  the  tone  of 
principle  and  opinion  among  themselves,  as  the  vital  source  of 
good  conduct,  rather  than  to  the  simple  repression  of  vice.  His 
discipline  was  moral  rather  than  punitive.  Hence  there  were  few 
cases  of  dismission  or  other  severe  punishment  during  his  admin 
istration,  and  hence,  also,  the  need  for  such  punishments  became 
ever  less  and  less. 

The  influence  of  this  policy,  aided  especially  by  the  mighty 
influence  of  his  personal  character,  was  all-powerful.  The  eleva 
tion  of  tone  and  the  improvement  in  conduct  were  steady  and 
rapid.  Immediately  after  the  war  the  young  men  of  the  South 
were  wild  and  unrestrained,  and  acts  of  disorder  were  frequent; 
in  the  latter  years  of  his  administration  hardly  a  single  case  of 
serious  discipline  occurred.  I  doubt,  indeed,  whether  at  any  other 
college  in  the  world  so  many  young  men  could  have  been  found 
as  free  from  misconduct,  or  marked  by  as  high  a  tone  of  feeling 
and  opinion,  as  were  the  students  of  Washington  College  during 
these  latter  years  of  General  Lee's  life.  The  students  felt  this  and 
were  proud  of  it;  and  they  were  proud  of  themselves  and  of 
their  college  as  representatives  of  the  character  and  influence 
of  Lee. 

Yet  not  the  less  was  he  rigidly  exacting  of  duty  and  scrupu 
lously  attentive  to  details.  By  a  system  of  reports,  weekly  and 
monthly — almost  military  in  their  exactness — which  he  required 
of  each  professor,  he  made  himself  acquainted  with  the  standing 
and  progress  of  every  student  in  every  one  of  his  classes*  These 
reports  he  studied  carefully  and  was  quick  to  detect  shortcomings. 
He  took  care,  also,  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  each  student 
personally,  to  know  his  studies,  his  boarding-house,  his  associa 
tions,  disposition  and  habits ;  and  though  he  never  obtruded  this 
knowledge,  the  students  knew  that  he  possessed  it  and  that  his 
interest  followed  them  everywhere.  Nor  was  it  a  moral  influence 


*An  illustration  of  this  careful  attention  is  related  by  one  of  my  colleagues  : 
On  one  occasion  the  delinquency  of  a   student  was  mentioned   in  faculty  meeting. 

"Mr.  ,"  said  General  Lee,  "I  do  not  know  him" — and  seemed  mortified  at  the 

omission.     On   inquiry  it  was  found  that  the  student  had  recently  entered  during 
the  absence  of  General  Lee — who  at  once  proceeded  to  make  his  acquaintance. 


25 

alone  that  he  exerted  in  the  college.  He  was  equally  careful  of  its 
intellectual  interests.  Though  not  personally  engaged  in  teaching, 
he  watched  the  progress  of  every  class,  attended  all  the  examina 
tions  and  frequently  the  recitations,  and  strove  constantly  to 
stimulate  both  professors  and  students  to  the  highest  attain 
ments^  The  whole  college,  in  a  word,  felt  his  influence  as  an 
ever-present  motive,  and  his  character  was  quietly  yet  irresistibly 
impressed  upon  it,  not  only  in  the  general  working  of  all  its 
departments,  but  in  all  the  details  of  each. 

Of  this  influence  General  Lee,  modest  as  he  was,  was  perfectly 
aware  and,  like  a  prudent  ruler,  he  husbanded  it  with  a  wise 
economy.  He  preferred  to  confine  his  direct  interposition  to 
purely  personal  acts ;  and  rarely,  and  then  only  on  critical  occa 
sions,  did  he  step  forward  to  present  himself  before  the  whole 
body  of  students  in  the  full  dignity  of  his  presidential  office.  On 
these  occasions,  which  were  always  rare  and  in  his  later  years 
hardly  ever  occurred,  he  would  quietly  post  an  address  to  the 
students,  in  which,  appealing  only  to  the  highest  principles  of 
conduct,  he  sought  to  dissuade  them  from  threatened  evil.  These 
addresses,  which  the  boys  designated  as  his  "General  Orders" 
were  always  of  immediate  efficacy,  and  no  student  would  have 
been  tolerated  by  his  fellow-students  who  would  have  dared  to 
disregard  such  an  appeal  from  General  Lee.* 


tGeneral  Lee  never  failed  to  attend  every  examination,  dividing  the  time  among 
the  several  classes.  Every  week  he  devoted  an  hour  or  more  to  attending  recita 
tions.  He  came  when  least  expected,  and  his  presence  was  a  stimulus  to  both  stu 
dents  and  professors — such  as  I  have  never  since  experienced.  He  would  remain 
10  or  15  minutes  and  then  pass  to  another  class.  His  bow,  as  he  entered  and  left 
the  room,  was  an  impressive  lesson  in  courtesy — that  gracious  courtesy  which  now 
seems  to  me  to  have  almost  departed  from  the  new  generation. 

*One  of  these  addresses — on  an  occasion  of  threatened  peril,  when  a  company 
of  Federal  soldiers  was  encamped  at  Lexington,  ready  to  take  advantage  of  any 
disorder — is  here  appended.  The  original,  copied  for  Gen.  Lee  by  Mrs.  Joynes  and 
by  him  presented  to  her,  now  hangs  in  my  study. 

Washington  College,  26  Nov.,  1866. 

The  faculty  desires  to  call  the  attention  of  the  students  to  the  disturbances 
which  occurred  in  the  streets  of  Lexington  on  the  nights  of  Friday  and  Saturday 
last.  They  believe  that  none  can  contemplate  them  with  pleasure,  or  can  find  any 
reasonable  grounds  for  their  justification.  These  acts  are  said  to  have  been  com 
mitted  by  students  of  the  college  with  the  apparent  object  of  disturbing  the  peace 
and  quiet  of  a  town  whose  inhabitants  have  opened  their  doors  for  their  reception 
and  accommodation,  and  who  are  always  ready  to  administer  to  their  comfort  and 
pleasure. 

It  requires  but  little  consideration  to  see  the  error  of  conduct  which  could  only 
have  proceeded  from  thoughtlessness  and  a  want  of  reflection.  The  faculty  there 
fore  appeal  to  the  honour  and  self-respect  of  the  students  to  prevent  any  similar 


26 

General  Lee  was  also  most  laborious  in  the  duties  of  his  office 
as  a  college  president.  He  gave  himself  wholly  to  his  work.  His 
occupation  was  constant,  almost  incessant.  He  went  to  his  office 
daily  at  eight  o'clock,  and  rarely  returned  home  until  one  or  two. 
During  this  time  he  was  almost  incessantly  engaged  in  college 
matters,  giving  his  personal  attention  to  the  minutest  details,  and 
always  ready  to  receive  visitors  on  college  business.  His  office  was 
always  open  to  students  or  professors,  all  whose  interests  received 
his  ready  consideration.  His  correspondence  meanwhile  was  very 
heavy,  yet  no  letter  that  called  for  an  answer  was  ever  neglected. 
It  was  stated  by  the  editor  of  a  Virginia  paper  that  to  a  circular 
letter  of  general  educational  interest,  addressed  by  him  to  a  large 
number  of  college  presidents,  General  Lee  was  the  only  one  that 
replied ;  yet  he  was  the  greatest  and  perhaps  the  busiest  of  them 
all.  In  addition  to  the  formal  reports,  which  he  always  revised 
and  signed  himself,  his  correspondence  with  the  parents  and 
guardians  of  students  was  intimate  and  explicit,  on  every  occasion 
that  required  such  correspondence.  Many  of  these  letters  are 
models  of  beautiful  composition  and  noble  sentiment.* 

These  varied  duties  grew  upon  him  year  after  year  with  the 
expanding  interests  of  the  college ;  and  year  after  year  he  seemed 
to  become  more  devoted  to  them.  Again  and  again  did  the 
trustees  and  faculty  seek  to  lessen  his  labors ;  but  his  carefulness 
of  duty  and  natural  love  of  work  seemed  to  render  it  impossible. 
Equally,  he  declined  donations  offered  expressly  to  raise  his 
salary ;  for  the  college,  he  said,  needed  money  more  than  he  did. 
The  writer  has  heard  the  remark  made  that  General  Lee  gave 
himself  to  the  duties  of  President  of  Washington  College  as 
though  he  had  never  known  any  other  duties  or  any  other  ambi 
tion  ;  and  this  was  true.  He  himself  wrote  to  an  old  and  famous 
comrade  in  arms,  "I  am  charmed  with  the  duties  of  civil  life." 


occurrence,  trusting  that  their  sense  of  what  is  due  to  themselves,  their  parents 
and  the  institution  to  which  they  belong,  will  be  more  effectual  in  teaching  them 
what  is  right  and  manly  than  anything  they  can  say. 

There  is  one  consideration  connected  with  these  disorderly  proceedings  which 
the  faculty  wish  to  bring  to  your  particular  notice  :  the  example  of  your  conduct, 
and  the  advantage  taken  of  it  by  others,  to  commit  outrages  for  which  you  have 
to  bear  the  blame.  They  therefore  exhort  you  to  adopt  the  only  course  capable  of 
shielding  you  from  such  charges  :  the  effectual  prevention  of  all  such  occurrences 
in  future.  R.  E.  LEE,  Pres.  W.  C. 

*Some  of  these  may  be  found  among  General  Lee's  published  letters. 


27 

It  can  be  truly  said  that  he  was  wholly  absorbed  in  his  work,  his 
noble  conception  of  which  made  it  great,  and  worthy  even  of  him. 
But  General  Lee  was  not  only  earnest  and  laborious,  he  was  also 
able,  as  a  college  president.  He  was  perfectly  master  of  the  situ 
ation,  and  thoroughly  wise  and  skillful  in  all  its  duties,  of 
organization  and  of  policy  as  well  as  of  detail.  To  this  let  the 
results  of  his  administration  bear  testimony.  He  found  the  college 
practically  bankrupt,  disorganized,  deserted;  he  left  it  strong, 
progressive,  and  crowded  with  students.  It  was  not  merely  num 
bers  that  he  brought  to  it,  for  these  his  great  fame  alone  would 
have  attracted ;  he  gave  it  organization,  unity,  energy,  and  prac 
tical  success.  In  entering  upon  his  presidency  he  seemed  at  once 
fully  to  comprehend  the  wants  of  the  college,  and  its  history 
during  the  next  five  years  was  but  the  development  of  his  plans 
and  the  reflection  of  his  wise  energy.  And  these  plans  were  not 
fragmentary,  nor  was  this  energy  merely  an  industrious  zeal.  He 
had  from  the  beginning  a  distinct  policy  which  he  had  fully 
conceived  and  to  which  he  steadily  adhered,  so  that  all  his  par 
ticular  measures  of  progress  were  but  consistent  steps  in  its 
development.  His  object  was  nothing  less  than  to  establish  and 
perfect  an  institution  which  should  meet  the  highest  needs  of 
education  in  every  department.  At  once,  and  without  waiting  for 
the  means  to  be  provided  in  advance,  he  proceeded  to  develop  this 
purpose.  Under  his  advice  new  chairs  were  created,  and  pro 
fessors  called  to  fill  them ;  so  that  before  the  end  of  the  first  year 
the  faculty  was  doubled  in  numbers.  Later,  additional  chairs  were 
created,  and  finally  a  complete  system  of  departments  was  estab 
lished  and  brought  into  full  operation.  To  these  departments, 
each  one  of  which  was  complete  in  itself  and  under  the  individual 
control  of  its  own  professor,  was  given  a  compact  and  unique 
organization  into  a  system  of  complete  courses,  with  corres 
ponding  diplomas  and  degrees ;  which,  while  securing  the  perfect 
distinctness  and  responsibility  of  each  department,  gave  perfect 
unity  to  them  all.  These  courses  were  so  adapted  and  mutually 
arranged  as  to  avoid  alike  the  errors  of  the  purely  elective  system 
on  the  one  hand  and  of  the  close  curriculum  on  the  other,  and  to 
secure,  by  a  happy  compromise,  the  best  advantages  of  both.  So 
admirably  was  this  plan  conceived  and  administered  that, 
heterogeneous  as  were  the  students  especially  in  the  earlier  years, 


28 

each  one  found  at  once  his  proper  place,  and  nearly  all  were  kept 
in  the  line  of  complete  and  systematic  study. 

Under  this  organization,  and  especially  under  the  inspiration  of 
General  Lee's  central  influence,  the  utmost  harmony  and  the 
utmost  energy  pervaded  all  the  departments  of  the  college.  The 
highest  powers  of  both  professors  and  students  were  called  forth, 
under  the  fullest  responsibility.  The  standards  of  scholarship 
were  rapidly  advanced;  and  soon  the  graduates  of  Washington 
College  were  the  acknowledged  equals  of  those  from  the  best 
institutions  elsewhere,  and  were  eagerly  sought  after  for  the 
highest  positions  as  teachers  in  the  best  schools.  These  results, 
which  even  in  the  few  years  of  his  administration  had  become 
universally  acknowledged  throughout  the  South,  were  due  directly 
and  immediately,  more  than  to  all  other  causes,  to  the  personal 
ability  and  influence  of  General  Lee,  as  president  of  the  college. 

General  Lee's  plans  for  the  development  of  Washington  College 
were  not  simply  progressive;  they  were  distinct  and  definite. 
He  aimed  to  make  the  college  represent  at  once  the  wants  and 
the  genius  of  the  country.  He  fully  realized  the  needs  of  the 
present  age,  and  he  desired  to  adapt  the  education  of  the  people 
to  their  condition  and  their  destiny.  He  was  the  ardent  advocate 
of  complete  classical  and  literary  culture*  Under  his  influence 
the  classical  and  literary  departments  of  the  college  were  fully 
sustained.  Yet  he  recognized  the  fact  that  material  well-being 
is  a  condition  of  all  high  civilization,  and  therefore  he  sought  to 
provide  the  means  for  the  development  of  science  and  for  its 
practical  applications.  He  thought,  indeed,  that  the  best  antidote 
to  the  materialistic  tendencies  of  a  purely  scientific  training  was  to 
be  found  in  the  liberalizing  influences  of  literary  culture,  and  that 
scientific  and  professional  schools  could  best  be  taught  when  sur 
rounded  by  the  associations  of  a  literary  institution.  He  believed 
fully  in  the  university  idea  and  not  in  separate  technical  schools ; 
but  that,  as  hereafter  they  must  live  together,  so  young  men  of 
different  pursuits  should  be  educated  together,  and  that  their 
mutual  influence  would  be  mutually  beneficial  in  college  as  in 
later  life.  He  sought,  therefore,  to  establish  this  mutual  connec 
tion,  and  to  consolidate  all  the  departments  of  literary,  scientific 


*He  was  often  heard  to  regret  that  he  had  not  more  fully  completed  his  clas 
sical  education  before  going  to  West  Point. 


29 

and  professional  education  under  a  common  organization.  Hence, 
at  an  early  day,  he  called  into  existence  the  departments  of 
Applied  Mathematics  and  Engineering,  of  Modern  Languages, 
and  of  Law,  as  part  of  the  collegiate  organization ;  and,  later,  he 
submitted  to  the  trustees  a  plan  for  the  complete  development  of 
the  scientific  and  professional  departments  of  the  college,  which 
will  ever  remain  as  an  example  of  his  enlarged  wisdom,  and  which 
anticipated,  by  many  years,  the  actual  attainments  of  any  school 
in  this  country.*  In  addition  to  all  the  other  reasons  for  mourn 
ing  the  death  of  General  Lee,  it  is  to  be  deeply  regretted  that  he 
did  not  live  to  complete  his  great  designs.*  Had  he  done  so,  he 


*In  the  Washington  College  catalogue  for  1868-69  (as  part  of  General  Lee'i 
report  to  the  Board  of  Trustees)  may  be  found  the  outline  of  a  School  of  Com 
merce,  which  now,  after  nearly  forty  years,  Washington  and  Lee  University  (see  its 
last  Summer  Bulletin)  has  just  been  able  to  realize.  A  like  course  was  included 
(I  regret  to  say,  unsuccessfully)  in  the  recommendations  of  our  own  University  to 
the  present  Legislature.  So  did  General  Lee  anticipate  the  future,  and  so  do  his 
works  live  after  him. 

I  have  elsewhere  related  how,  in  my  first  official  interview  with  him,  he 
emphasized  the  teaching  of  Spanish,  remarking  (prophetically)  that  our  relations 
with  Spanish-speaking  countries  were  destined  soon  to  become  closer. 

Properly  to  estimate  the  value  of  General  Lee's  work,  as  a  college  president, 
and  especially  of  the  plans  left  unfulfilled  by  his  death,  we  must  consider  the 
condition  of  American  colleges,  generally,  in  the  sixties,  and  not  the  more  advanced 
conditions  of  the  present  day.  And,  for  a  just  estimate  of  his  labors,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  in  those  days  there  were  no  telephones  and  no  typewriters ;  and, 
BO  far  as  I  can  recall,  General  Lee  never  had  any  private  secretary. 

•The  successive  catalogues  of  Washington  College,  1866-70,  exhibit  an  inter 
esting  chapter  in  the  history  of  education,  which,  it  is  hoped,  Washington  and  Lee 
University  will  some  day  make  public ;  for  they  show,  in  a  striking  way,  the 
progressiveness  and  the  elevation  of  General  Lee's  ideas,  beyond  anything  then 
realized,  or  even  conceived,  in  American  colleges.  Having  already  established  (in 
the  first  year)  the  departments  of  Applied  Mathematics,  of  Civil  Engineering,  of 
Modern  Languages  and  English,  and  of  Law ;  and,  in  the  second  year,  of  History 
and  English  Literature,  of  Natural  History  and  Geology,  of  Applied  Chemistry  and 
a  Students'  Business  School,  General  Lee,  in  the  next  year  (1868-09)  recommended 
an  extension  of  the  scientific  and  practical  courses,  including :  A  Course  of  Agri 
culture  ;  a  Course  of  Commerce ;  a  Course  of  Mechanical  Engineering ;  a  Course  of 
Mining  Engineering,  and  a  Course  of  Chemistry  Applied  to  the  Arts. 

In  recommending  these  courses,  which  are  fully  set  forth  in  his  report  to  the 
trustees,  and  which  anticipate  the  best  work  of  the  best  schools  of  the  present  day, 
General  Lee  wrote  : 

"The  great  object  of  the  whole  plan  is  to  provide  the  facilities  required  by  the 
large  class  of  our  young  men,  who,  looking  to  an  early  entrance  into  the  practical 
pursuits  of  life,  need  a  more  direct  training  to  this  end  than  the  usual  literary 
courses.  The  proposed  departments  will  also  derive  great  advantage  from  the 
literary  Schools  of  the  College,  whose  influence  in  the  cultivation  and  enlargement 
of  the  mind  is  felt  beyond  their  immediate  limits." 

The  fulfillment  of  these  far-sighted  plans  was  interrupted  by  his  death  (October 
1870).  The  money,  cheerfully  subscribed  for  his  sake  all  over  the  South,  was  no 
longer  available. 


30 

would  probably  have  left  behind  him  an  institution  of  learning 
which  would  have  been  a  not  less  illustrious  tribute  to  his  fame 
than  his  most  brilliant  military  achievements.  As  it  is,  he  has 
left  a  university,  which,  dowered  with  his  memory  and  his  name, 
and  inspired  with  his  ideals,  will  always  remain  his  noblest  monu 
ment.  There  today  his  memory  has  been  celebrated,  and  his 
praises  spoken  by  a  distinguished  citizen  of  Massachusetts,  who, 
once  a  Union  soldier,  is  now  proud  to  claim  the  name  and  fame 
of  Lee  as  the  property  and  the  glory  of  the  nation. 

Outside  of  these  more  official  statements  there  is  much  that  I 
might  say  of  General  Lee  in  his  more  personal  and  private  rela 
tions.  Yet  such  detail  might  be  wearisome,  and,  besides,  much  of 
what  I  would  say  might  be  unsuitable  for  public  utterance.  But 
no  one  who  ever  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  intercourse  with  General 
Lee  can  forget  that  splendid  and  captivating  personality.  He  was 
the  handsomest  man  I  have  ever  seen.  Besides  the  utmost  perfec 
tion  of  form  and  feature  he  had  a  mingled  sweetness  and  dignity 
of  expression — an  unconscious  grace  and  majesty  of  appearance — 
"the  like  of  which,"  says  General  Lord  Wolseley,"  I  have  never 
seen  in  other  men."  His  familiar  conversation  was  kind  and 
gracious,  and  often  lightened  by  the  play  of  genial  humor.  He 
enjo}^ed  a  joke  and  could  tell  one  with  a  keen  zest — but  never  was 
there  any  approach  to  unseemly  levity,  and  no  man  could  have 
dared  to  take  liberties  w^ith  General  Lee.  In  his  home,  where  I 
often  met  him  in  his  family  circle,  he  was  most  loving  and  lovable 
— and  especially  his  demeanor  to  Mrs.  Lee,  who  for  some  years 
had  been  disabled  by  rheumatism,  was  marked  by  a  visible  and 
touching  tenderness.  Of  this  dear  and  gracious  lady,  who  to  my 
wife  and  children  showed  the  mingled  love  of  friend  and  mother, 


One  other  paragraph,  from  the  Catalogue  of  1867-68,  I  think  worthy  of  record 
here : 

"The  discipline  has  been  placed  upon  that  basis  on  which  it  is  believed 
experience  has  shown  it  can  be  most  safely  trusted — upon  the  honour  and  self- 
respect  of  the  students  themselves.  The  entire  government,  and  the  intercourse 
of  the  faculty  with  the  students,  are  adapted  to  the  encouragement  of  these 
principles.  The  cultivation  of  a  high  tone  of  truthfulness  and  honour,  and  of 
a  just  and  lofty  public  opinion  among  the  students  as  a  body,  is  believed  to 
furnish  a  better  safeguard  for  the  discipline  of  the  College,  as  well  as  a  better 
assurance  for  the  development  of  manly  character,  than  any  repressive  or  puni 
tive  regulations  that  could  be  adopted.  Strict  attention  to  duty  is  nevertheless 
required  of  all." 


and  whose  memorials  are  among  the  dearest  possessions  of  our 
household,  I  may  not  speak  here,  except  to  say,  that  she  was 
worthy  to  he  the  wife  of  General  Lee  and  the  mother  of  his 
children.  Of  his  devotion  to  her,  and  of  his  affectionate  and 
beautiful  family  life,  the  richest  proofs  are  given  in  his  published 
letters — the  most  intimate  of  which  exhibit,  most  unconsciously, 
the  finest  traits  of  his  character.  To  all  women  he  always  showed 
the  most  chivalrous  and  delicate  courtesy.  Of  children  he  was 
affectionately  fond,  and  to  them  he  was  irresistibly  attractive. 
They  were  often  seen  gathered  around  him  on  the  campus,  or  in 
his  quiet  walks. 

In  what  is  called  "society"  General  Lee  mingled  but  little — he 
had  neither  time  nor  inclination.  But  he  was  never  forgetful  of 
the  "small,  sweet  courtesies  of  life."  A  stranger  visiting  Lexing 
ton,  a  father  or  mother  visiting  a  son  at  college,  was  sure  of  a 
call  from  General  Lee,  and  with  scrupulous  courtesy  he  repaid  the 
social  attentions  that  he  received.  At  his  table  he  presided  with 
his  accustomed  sweet  and  gentle  dignity,  and  shared  fully  in 
social,  often  playful  conversation.  On  special  occasions  he  offered 
rare  wines — I  remember  once  some  that  had  been  bottled  by  his 
father.  Of  such  he  partook  sparingly,  but  never — so  far  as  I 
know — of  any  other  intoxicating  drink.  He  was  fond  of  riding — 
almost  every  afternoon,  when  he  had  time;  and  General  Lee  on 
Traveller,  booted  and  gauntleted — in  winter  with  his  military 
cloak — and  accompanied,  as  he  often  was,  by  his  favorite  friend, 
Professor  White — like  himself  a  superb  horseman — was  the  finest 
sight  on  which  the  eye  could  rest.  How  often — ah,  how  often !  I 
have  watched  that  splendid  spectacle ! 

In  business  matters,  private  or  official,  General  Lee  was  accurate 
and  methodical,  and  his  annual  reports  were  models  of  clear  and 
comprehensive  statement.  In  correspondence  he  was  careful  and 
scrupulously  punctual.  On  this  subject  I  can  speak  with  knowl 
edge,  for  it  often  fell  to  my  lot  to  help  him — as  we  were  all  ready 
to  do — in  answering  his  many  letters.  In  private  conversation  he 
was  quiet  and  genial.  He  never  spoke — at  least  not  in  my  hearing 
— of  the  war  or  of  politics,  except  with  the  utmost  reserve.  Here 
his  recollections  were,  doubtless,  too  painful.  I  never  heard  from 
his  lips  a  word  either  of  bitterness  or  of  apology,  nor  any  criticism 
of  others.  It  is  known,  I  believe,  that  he  had  intended  to  write  the 


32 

history  of  his  army,  but  that  he  desisted,  because  he  thought  this 
could  not  be  done  "without  causing  too  much  pain."  Thus,  for 
the  sake  of  others,  he  forebore  what  would  have  been  his  own 
supreme  vindication.  So  tender,  so  self-denying,  was  this  great 
heart. 

As  I  look  back  now,  through  the  haze  of  forty  years,  I  can 
hardly  realize,  as  I  could  not  then,  that  this  man,  so  quiet  and  so 
human — so  simple  in  conduct  and  costume — so  kind  and  friendly 
— so  diligent  in  business — so  social  and  cheerful — so  unassuming 
and  unpretending,  as  he  shared  or  cheered  our  daily  labors — was 
the  same  that  had  commanded  great  armies — had  swayed  the 
tide  of  battle — had  borne  the  hopes  and  sorrows  of  a  great  people, 
and  alike  in  victory  and  in  defeat  had  given  to  his  countrymen 
and  to  the  world  the  last  and  highest  ideal  of  the  heroic  com 
mander.  And  yet — wonderful  as  it  was  and  is — it  was  he;  and 
after  all,  he  was  as  great — as  unequaled — on  that  college  campus 
as  on  any  battlefield — the  same  everywhere  and  always.  "He 
was,"  says  General  Lord  Wolseley,  who  knew  him  when  at  the 
head  of  his  army,  "the  most  perfect  man  I  have  ever  met,"  and 
seemed  "cast  in  a  grander  mould  and  made  of  finer  metal  than  all 
other  men."  It  is  but  small  praise  that  I,  who  knew  him  in  a 
narrower  and  more  intimate  sphere,  should  echo  the  same  senti 
ment.* 

It  has  been  already  said  that  to  the  individual  professors  Gen 
eral  Lee  was  always  kind  and  accessible.  In  official  relations  he 
bore  his  authority  modestly,  yet  always  effectively.  From  each 
professor  he  required  stated  reports  of  his  department,  which  he 
then  transmitted  to  the  trustees,  with  his  own  endorsement  or 
comment,  along  with  his  own  report.  And  after  submitting  his 
report,  he  always  retired  to  his  office  to  await  the  pleasure  of  the 
Board,  in  order  not  to  embarrass  their  action  by  his  presence. 


*  Since  this  was  written  I  have,  for  the  first  time,  read  in  The  Outlook,  Nov.  26, 
1904,  a  most  sympathetic  and  appreciative  paper  by  Professor  Edwin  Mims,  of 
Trinity  College,  N.  C.,  entitled  "Five  Years  of  Robert  E.  Lee's  Life,"  from  which 
I  regret  that  it  is  now  too  late  to  quote.  This  paper  was  written  in  review  of 
"Recollections  and  Letters  of  General  Lee,"  by  (his  son)  Capt.  Robert  E.  Lee — 
which  volume,  along  with  the  "Personal  Reminiscences,"  by  the  devoted  chaplain, 
Dr.  J.  William  Jones — offers  the  richest  material  for  the  study  of  Lee's  life  and 
character. 

I  venture  to  hope  that  Trinity  College,  in  its  celebration  of  this  Centennial, 
will  reprint  Professor  Mims's  paper  entire. 


33 

In  the  weekly  meetings  of  the  faculty  General  Lee  exerted 
rather  an  influence  which  seemed  unconscious  both  to  himself  and 
to  us,  than  any  visible  authority.  Faculty  meetings  are  apt  to  be 
wordy,  and  sometimes  a  little  excited;  but  General  Lee  never 
showed  impatience,  and  his  quiet  presence  calmed  every  rising 
storm.  Enough  occurred,  sometimes,  to  show  that  he  had  both  a 
quick  and  a  strong  temper,  but  never  for  a  moment  did  he  lose 
self-control  or  forget  either  dignity  or  courtesy.  He  exerted  him 
self  to  minimize  his  own  authority,  and  to  leave  to  each  professor 
the  full  sense  of  independence  and  responsibility.  He  never 
made  a  speech ;  rarely,  indeed,  spoke  from  his  chair  or  attempted 
by  any  expression  of  opinion  to  influence  a  pending  vote. 
It  need  not  be  added,  however,  that  when  General  Lee's  views 
were  known,  they  were  always  decisive,  and  no  really  important 
measure  was  ever  introduced  without  consultation  with  him. 
Besides  its  exceptionally  great  ability,  his  was  the  best  organized 
and  most  efficient  faculty  I  have  ever  served  with.  Its  important 
work  was  done  (as  in  Congress)  by  standing  committees,  and 
General  Lee  was  always  consulted  in  every  case  of  importance  or 
difficulty.  Thus — though  the  initiative  often  came  from  another 
source — he  was  really  identified  with  every  important  measure. 

I  have  said  that  General  Lee  rarely  spoke  in  faculty  meetings, 
but  his  influence  was  not  the  less  felt.  I  have  already  stated  how 
strongly  he  advocated  and  enforced  the  principle  of  honor  in 
dealing  with  students,  and  his  aversion  to  minute  regulations. 
And  occasionally  he  gave  utterance  to  thoughts  which  I  have 
always  remembered  and  now  deem  worthy  of  record.  On  one 
occasion  a  professor  cited  a  certain  regulation,  to  which  another 
replied  that  it  was  a  dead  letter.  "Then,"  said  General  Lee,  "let  it 
be  at  once  repealed.  A  'dead  letter'  inspires  disrespect  for  the 
whole  body  of  laws;  but  as  long  as  it  stands,  it  should  be 
enforced."  On  another  occasion  a  professor  appealed  to  prece 
dent,  and  added:  "We  must  not  respect  persons."  "I  always 
respect  persons,"  replied  General  Lee,  "and  care  little  for  pre 
cedent."  Again  he  said:  "We  must  never  make  a  rule  that  we 
cannot  enforce" ;  and  again,  counseling  a  professor :  "Never  raise 
an  issue  which  you  are  not  prepared  to  maintain  at  all  hazards" ; 
and  "Make  no  needless  rules." 

As  to  his  views  of  discipline,  enough  perhaps  has  been  said 


34 

already.  I  may  state,  however,  with  reference  to  an  important 
and  often  recurring  question,  that  General  Lee  held  idleness  to  be 
not  a  negative  but  a  positive  vice.  "A  young  man,"  he  said,  "is 
always  doing  something — if  not  good,  then  harm  to  himself  and 
others" — so  that  merely  persistent  idleness  was,  with  him,  suffi 
cient  cause  for  dismissal.  Another  interesting  fact  was  this :  In 
the  old  college,  students  had  lived  in  dormitories.  Now,  General 
Lee  advised  all  younger  students  to  board  and  lodge  in  private 
families — reserving  the  dormitories  as  a  special  privilege  for  older 
students — because,  he  said,  they  offered  special  opportunities  of 
license,  while  younger  boys  needed  the  restraining  influences  of 
family  life.  This  view  was  amply  vindicated  by  results,  while 
thus  also  the  town  and  the  college  were  drawn  into  closer  fellow 
ship  and  sympathy.  There  was  no  "town  and  gown"  in  Lexington. 

One  incident,  personal  to  myself,  is  worth  relating,  for  it  teaches 
still,  as  it  taught  me,  a  valuable  lesson.  I  often  assisted  General 
Lee  in  his  correspondence — as  we  all  sought  to  help  him  when 
we  could.  Once  he  gave  me  an  important  letter,  which  he  asked 
me  to  answer  "with  care."  I  did  my  best.  When  I  returned  it, 
he  read  it  carefully — then  took  up  his  pencil,  and  said:  "Pro 
fessor,  this  is  very  good,  but  it  will  be  better  if  we  strike  out  a  few 
adjectives  and  adverbs" — then,  handing  it  back,  he  said:  "Now, 
if  you  will  kindly  copy  it."  I  found  that  he  had  struck  out  every 
useless  word,  leaving  the  letter,  of  course,  better  than  it  was 
before.  This  incident  I  never  forgot; — as  a  teacher  of  English 
I  have  quoted  it  again  and  again  to  my  classes,  and  I  recognize 
it  now  as  the  best  lesson  in  composition  I  have  ever  received.  In 
this  connection  I  may  remark  that  General  Lee's  own  writings, 
whether  official  or  private,  are  models  of  clear  and  correct  form. 
He  was  a  master  of  style,  in  both  thought  and  expression. 

Of  his  dealings  with  students,  by  which  he  won  their  love  as 
well  as  their  reverence,  many  interesting  anecdotes  are  related — I 
mention  only  one  or  two,  which  came  under  my  personal  knowl 
edge. 

I  have  said  that  by  weekly  reports  he  kept  in  close  touch  with 
all  the  classes.  Especially  no  single  unexcused  absence  was  ever 
overlooked.*  The  delinquent  was  at  once  summoned  to  General 

*I  take  the  liberty  of  adding  here  that,  in  this  respect,  General  Lee's  discipline 
was  a  model.  His  puctuality  made  it  at  once  strict  and  easy.  By  thus  meeting 
neglect  and  disorder  on  the  threshold,  he  prevented  their  continuance  ;  and  hence 
there  were  but  few  cases  of  prolonged  misconduct  to  be  dealt  with  by  him  or  by 
the  faculty. 


35 

Lee's  office — always  a  most  dreaded  ordeal— and  his  reception 
varied  from  "grave  to  gay"  according  to  circumstances.  I  give 
an  instance  of  each:  A  young  fellow  whose  general  record  was 
none  too  good,  was  summoned  to  answer  for  absence.  He  stated 
his  excuse,  and  then,  hesitatingly,  he  added  another  and  another. 

"Stop,  Mr. ,"  said  General  Lee,  "one  good  reason  should  be 

sufficient,"  with  an  emphasis  on  the  word  good  that  spoke  volumes. 
Another,  an  excellent  student,  now  a  distinguished  lawyer  in 
Tennesessee,  was  once  beguiled  into  an  unexcused  absence.  The 
dreaded  summons  came.  With  his  heart  in  his  boots  he  entered 
General  Lee's  office.  The  General  met  him 'smiling:  "Mr.  M.,  I 
am  glad  to  see  you  are  better."  "But,  General,  I  have  not  been 
sick."  "Then  I  am  glad  to  see  you  had  better  news  from  home." 
"But,  General,  I  have  had  no  bad  news."  "Ah,"  said  the  General, 
"I  took  it  for  granted  that  nothing  less  than  sickness  or  dis 
tressing  news  from  home  could  have  kept  you  from  your  duty." 
Mr.  M.  told  me,  in  relating  this  incident,  that  he  then  felt  as  if 
he  wished  the  earth  to  open  and  swallow  him.  To  a  lazy  fellow, 
he  once  said:  "How  is  your  mother?  I  am  sure  you  must  be 
devoted  to  her ;  you  are  so  careful  of  the  health  of  her  son" ;  and 
to  another,  who  was  in  rebellion  against  authority :  "You  cannot 
be  a  true  man,  until  you  learn  to  obey." 

Of  General  Lee's  religious  character  I  do  not  feel  myself  worthy 
to  speak.  That  he  was  deeply,  sincerely  religious,  with  a  perfect, 
trusting  faith  in  God  and  in  Christ — that  by  this  he  was  guided 
and  upborne  in  every  act  and  every  trial — that  this  he  sought, 
unobstrusively  yet  earnestly  to  impress  upon  his  family,  his  com 
munity,  his  college — as  he  had  done  upon  his  army — this  is 
manifest  from  all  the  course  of  his  life,  as  from  his  writings.  His 
last  afternoon  was  spent  in  a  vestry  meeting — at  which  I  also 
was  present — in  the  attempt  to  relieve  his  beloved  rector  (for 
merly  his  trusted  companion  in  arms) ;  and  his  last  conscious  act 
was,  on  that  same  evening,  to  attempt  to  ask  a  blessing  upon  the 
evening  meal — when  God  called  him,  and  he  sank,  unconscious,  in 
his  chair.  Of  the  following  days  of  anxious  sorrow,  of  the  shock 
of  his  death,  and  of  the  grief  with  which  we  laid  him  in  his  coffin 
and  followed  him  to  his  grave,  I  have  no  heart  to  speak.  There 
he  rests,  beneath  the  chapel  which  he  himself  built,  to  the  glory  of 
God — his  tomb  fitly  crowned  with  that  recumbent  statue  by 
Valentine,  symbol  of  the  Eternal  Eest. 


Such,  most  imperfectly  sketched,  was  General  Lee,  as  a  college 
president.  And  surely  this  part  of  his  life  deserves  to  be  remem 
bered  and  commemorated  by  those  who  hold  his  memory  dear.  In 
it  he  exhibited  all  those  great  qualities  of  character  which  had 
made  his  name  already  so  illustrious ;  while,  in  addition,  he  sus 
tained  trials  and  sorrows  without  which  the  highest  perfections  of 
that  character  could  never  have  been  so  signally  displayed.  This 
life  at  Washington  College,  so  devoted,  so  earnest,  so  laborious, 
so  full  of  far-reaching  plans  and  of  wise  and  successful  effort,  was 
begun  under  the  weight  of  a  disappointment  which  might  have 
broken  any  ordinary  strength,  and  was  maintained,  in  the  midst 
of  private  and  public  misfortune,  with  a  serene  patience  and  a 
mingled  firmness  and  sweetness  of  temper,  which  give  additional 
brilliancy  even  to  the  glory  of  his  former  fame.  It  was  his  high 
privilege  to  meet  alike  the  temptations  and  perils  of  the  highest 
stations  before  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  the  cares  and  labors  of 
the  most  responsible  duties  of  private  life  under  the  most  trying 
circumstances,  and  to  exhibit,  in  all  alike,  the  qualities  of  a  great 
and  consistent  character,  founded  in  the  noblest  endowments,  and 
sustained  by  the  loftiest  principles  of  virtue  and  religion.  It  is  a 
privilege  henceforth  for  the  teachers  of  our  country  that  their 
profession,  in  its  humble  yet  arduous  labors,  its  great  and  its  petty 
cares,  has  been  illustrated  by  the  devotion  of  such  a  man.  It  is  an 
honor  for  all  our  colleges  that  one  of  them  is  henceforth  identified 
with  the  memory  of  his  name  and  of  his  work.  It  is  a  boon  for  us 
all;  an  honor  to  the  country,  which  in  its  whole  length  and 
breadth  will  soon  be  proud  to  claim  his  fame ;  an  honor  to  human 
nature  itself,  that  this  great  character,  so  often  and  so  severely 
tried,  has  thus  proved  itself  consistent,  serene  and  grand,  alike  in 
peace  and  in  war,  in  the  humblest  as  well  as  the  highest  offices. 
The  "Lost  Cause,"  indeed!  No  cause  is  wholly  lost,  to  a  people 
or  to  mankind,  that  produces  such  men,  and  leaves  such  memories, 
as  Wade  Hampton  and  Eobert  E.  Lee. 

Young  gentlemen  of  the  University:  Would  you  follow  Lee? 
No  more,  on  the  embattled  field,  can  he  lead  you,  as  he  led  your 
fathers,  to  glorious  victory ;  but  in  spirit  and  in  eternal  fame  he 
still  lives — the  Christian  soldier,  the  self-sacrificing  patriot,  the 
college  president,  the  South's  noblest  gentleman — to  remind  you, 
by  example  as  by  precept,  that  "Duty  is  the  sublimest  word  in  the 
language." 


GENERAL       LEE       AND      TRAVELLER,       BY       MILEY,       OF 
LEXINGTON.  THE       SCENE      IS      ROCK- 

BRIDGE     BATHS,     VIRGINIA. 


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